Hotel Galicja

Cyprus, 1963: a young Swedish author falls briefly and intensely in love with Régine, a married Jewish woman. Her family had escaped Vienna for Sweden in 1938, been sent away again and settled in France; in 1942 the mass arrests in Paris swept up her parents and her small brother, while Régine, seven at the time, slipped away. He gives his word that he will trace them. Four decades on, given only a short time to live, he checks into Hotel Galicja in Oświęcim. Working through deportation records in Paris and walking the ruins of Auschwitz-Birkenau, he tries to picture the family's final days, and wonders how anyone now can grasp the camps, and who has the right to speak of them.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

320 pages in the original

Genres

Historical, War, Love (assigned by AI)

Set in

Poland, France, Cyprus, 1942, 1963, 2007

First published

2009 by Norstedts

Author's age

74 when first published

ISBN

9789113022406 (original)