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Burned Child Seeks the Fire
 
 
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Burned Child Seeks the Fire [Paperback]

Cordelia Edvardson (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Book Description

June 1, 1998
[A] searing memoir. . . . An enduring, indeed universal, story.
Robert Taylor, The Boston Globe

Summoned with her mother to Gestapo headquarters in 1943, fourteen-year-old Cordelia Edvardson was given a terrible choice: to acknowledge her secret Jewish heritage and suffer the consequences or to see her mother charged with treason. Burned Child Seeks the Fire is the true story of the love between this mother and daughter, and a piercing example of the tragedies wrought by Nazi Germany.

"A lacerating, beautifully translated memoir."
Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Mesmerizing. . . . [Has] the concise unreality of a horrifying fairy tale."
Thomas Frick, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Behind [Edvardson's] deceptively simple prose is a complex and tragic story."
Judith Bolton-Fasman, Newsday

"Cordelia Edvardson's defiant tone challenges us to eschew simplified encounters with the literature and experiences of Holocaust survivors."
Paul H. Hamburg, Jewish Book World

"To see the horrors of the Holocaust through a child's eye is to experience hell. Cordelia Edvardson's astonishing story captures, with a terrifying reality, a child's response to the myriad atrocities of the Nazis and their murderous regime. Burned Child Seeks the Fire is compelling, horrifying, poetic in its intensity."
Deborah Peifer, Bay Area Reporter

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This unusual memoir is the story of a self-described "dark, pudgy, mean, defiant little brat," born in Berlin in 1929 of a half-Jewish mother and a Catholic father and sent to a concentration camp almost, it seems, as a bureaucratic formality. Raised Catholic, Cordelia Edvardson had little in common with her fellow inmates, some of whom despised her as a "German swine." Singled out for punishment, she was selected to act as a secretary for the monstrous "angel of Auschwitz," Josef Mengele. Impressionistic and naïve, Edvardson's third-person memoir retains a highly effective childlike quality ("she had learned that anything can happen, no matter what and no matter when, and for inexplicable reasons") that holds even in the most horrifying episodes. After World War II ended, Edvardson moved to Sweden, where this book was first published. She then converted to Judaism and moved to Israel. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA. The year is 1943 and Cordelia is forced to make a life-changing decision. The Gestapo has discovered that her mother has been hiding Cordelia's partly Jewish heritage. The woman will be tried for treason or Cordelia can admit that she is Jewish. Her decision sends her to Auschwitz. As a child, Cordelia was raised as a Catholic and takes comfort in her faith during her time in the concentration camp. After liberation, her outlook on her Catholic faith and on life is never the same. Edvardson writes in a compelling and dramatic manner. Readers will find themselves not only rooting for Cordelia's survival in the concentration camp but also her survival as a human being. This story will not be soon forgotten.?Stacey M. Keeley, Sherwood Regional Library, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 116 pages
  • Publisher: Beacon Press (June 1, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0807070955
  • ISBN-13: 978-0807070956
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.2 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A book for adults, politicians, analysts., January 15, 2007
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Burned Child Seeks the Fire (Paperback)
This is not a book for children. Rather it is a recollection of images and perceptions of the adult/child who survived the camps of World War Two to tell the tale. Cordelia Edvardson is a humanist who wants the world to abolish all that is inhumane most especially when it comes to children. She knows what its like to be taunted, terrified and have a tortured soul. A must for every policy maker, teacher, and whoever still believes in preserving a sane world.
glenys sugarman
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful and moving memoir, March 14, 1998
By A Customer
The author mesmerizes you with the simplicity and eloquence of her writing. She moves you with her childhood, her courage in the camps and the power of her spirit in returning to choose life again.
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4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!, June 8, 1998
By A Customer
This was just a great book. No books that I've read on this subject have been quite so compelling!
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