- Published: 1 May 2017
- ISBN: 9780143784128
- Imprint: Random House Australia
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 304
No Place to Lay One's Head
with a preface from Patrick Modiano
- Published: 1 May 2017
- ISBN: 9780143784128
- Imprint: Random House Australia
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 304
A fine English translation by Stephanie Smee. It is a vivid account of life in hiding and on the run after Frenkel left occupied Paris for Avignon, Nice, Grenoble, Anneccy and, eventually Switzerland, where the book ends. The book is not only a moving memoir but also an intriguing historical document, thanks not least to Frenkel's emphasis on the often unsolicited help she received from ordinary French people.
Natasha Lehrer, Times Literary Supplement
It is often a mistake to assume that historical narratives transcend their particular time and place, yet to my mind it is impossible to read Frenkel’s memoir without feeling its contemporary resonance; to hear the voices of the hundreds of thousands of Frenkels who today flee over different borders, for different reasons, with the same urgency and confronting the same indifference that Frenkel’s memoir hauntingly conveys. Recognising that these struggles have yet again become commonplace is perhaps the most poignant aspect of reading Frenkel’s memoir, as well as the most important reason that its translation and republication should be undertaken today.
Avril Alba, Australian Book Review
This real-life Suite Francaise is a moving tale of a French Jew betrayed by her country. [A] remarkable survivor's memoir. Terribly moving and terribly haunting. It's about one woman's immeasurable sorrow that everyone should hold in their hands.
Nicholas Shakespeare, The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Frenkel gives us an urgent narrative of the crucial years of her life. There is a wild beauty to the prose. Frenkel has an appealing style captured in an assured translation by Stephanie Smee. This rediscovered memoir by a Jewish bookseller is a vital eyewitness account of Vichy France.
Catherine Taylor, Financial Times
Frenkel wrote [this] in 1943–44, so the events are recent and the prose has a terrible immediacy. Certain episodes burn into the reader’s vision with the intensity of nightmares. As well as a riveting account of her own experience, Frenkel offers intriguing insights into the behaviour of French people under occupation. Frenkel’s portrait of a people she loved is a complex and unsettling view of humanity, in all its shifting shades. Inevitably, it makes us wonder how we would act in the circumstances, and forces us to face the probably disappointing truth.
Emily Rhodes, The Spectator UK
Frenkel’s attempts to escape over the border to Switzerland, from December 1942, are as gripping as any thriller. No Place to Lay One’s Head is a stark and chilling account of what happens when a society turns rotten and the rot spreads. It is all the more shocking because the tone is so matter-of-fact. There’s a singing simplicity to the writing. We don’t know much about what happened to Frenkel after her escape. What we do know is that we owe her a huge debt of gratitude. In sharing her bitter taste of bitter history, she has shown us the worst of humanity — but also the best.
Christina Patterson, The Sunday Times
NSW Premier's Literary Awards
Shortlisted • 2019 • NSW Premier's Translation Prize