The Postcard

Book 2 shifts from the story of the murdered Rabinovitches to the contemporary mother-daughter duo researching their family’s past. The novel becomes memoir as Anne takes on the protagonist’s role.

Book 2 opens with a brief dialogue between Lélia and her grandchild Clara, who is displeased at learning she is Jewish: “They don’t like Jewish people very much at school,” she says (196).

Lélia is alarmed and calls her daughter. They are in France, and the report that Clara’s school does not like Jewish people shakes them. Anne does not ask Clara about her day, too scared of what she will learn.

Anne later wakes in a sweat with the image of the Opera Garnier in her mind. She wants to find the person who sent her mother a postcard 16 years prior. Anne is about to turn 40.

Anne was pregnant at the conclusion of Book 1. In Book 2, her child, Clara, is six, and was born and raised in France.

In the morning, Anne phones Lélia about the postcard. She takes the train from Paris to her mother’s house in the suburbs. Lélia and her daughter search the office for the postcard. Lélia refuses to have anything to do with the investigation of the sender.