The Fiftieth Gate: A Journey through Memory

Author(s): Mark Raphael Baker

Biography

What right did I possess, as a child of survivors, to recreate an account of the Holocaust as if I was there? In writing The Fiftieth Gate, Mark Baker describes a journey from despair and death towards hope and life; it is the story of a son who enters his parents' memories and, inside the darkness, finds light. In his evocative prose, Baker takes us to this place of horror, and then brings us back to reflect on these events and remember: 'Never again'. Across the silence of fifty years, Baker and his family travel from Poland and Germany to Jerusalem and Melbourne, as the author struggles to uncover the mystery of his parents' survival: his father Yossl was imprisoned in concentration camps and his mother Genia was forced into hiding after the Jews of her village were murdered. Twenty years on The Fiftieth Gate remains an extraordinary book. It has become a classic and has now sold over 70,000 copies. In his new introduction, he recalls his motivations for writing this important memoir, and highlights how the testimonial culture in Holocaust studies has spread to awareness of other genocides and our responsibility (and failure) to prevent them.


Product Information

* Media mailout with a letter from the author on the relevance of the book twenty years after publication * Commerative mentions and features in mainstream and Jewish media * Major author tour and media interviews in August for Thirty Days will also promote The Fiftieth Gate * Appearances by the author at major writers' festivals * Advertisements in literary and current affair publications such as ABR, The Monthly, The Big Issue, and on their associated websites * Featured in Text newsletters and blog * Advertisements in YA and education publications such as Magpies * Promotions, including competitions, at education conferences like AATE and VATE * Teaching notes available for download at textpublishing.com.au/education * Promotions through YA booklover groups and Text's education newsletter, including the chance to win a class set * Advertisements in bookseller newsletters and catalogues

As well as The Fiftieth Gate, A Journey Through Memory, a seminal book on his parents' experience during the Holocaust, Mark Raphael Baker has written a compelling memoir, Thirty Days, A Journey to the End of Love, about the recent death of his wife. He is Director of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation and Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the School at Monash University, Melbourne.

General Fields

  • : 9781925498615
  • : Text Publishing Company
  • : The Text Publishing Company
  • : 0.342
  • : May 2017
  • : 198mm X 128mm
  • : Australia
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Mark Raphael Baker
  • : Paperback
  • : 717
  • : en
  • : 368
  • : BM