In one of the scenes of the book, the family sit together to sew the cloth star on their coats, this was obligatory as of 1942 to immediately identify Jewish people in the streets. This semi-autobiogarphical story leaves a lasting impression upon the reader, because of Minco’s refusal to resort to any form of literary dramatisation to tell a story that is in itself poignant and dramatic. Her entire family perishes in the concentration camps. It is the story of how a young Jewish girl escapes being deported and how she survives the war. Minco is never explicit she says more by saying less. The scenes in the book are deceptively ordinary, except that their context is vicious. This poignant short book is written in a limpid, immediate, almost casual style. The Times wrote about the book: “Europe’s catastrophe is here in microcosm”. Every school child in Holland reads her book “Bitter Herbs” (original title: “Het Bittere Kruid”). Her restrained style and cinematic turn of phrase give her books great power. Marga Minco’s books are distinguished by, and celebrated for, her sober, reserved way of using words and emotions. Illustration from the Golden Haggadah at the British Library. The Maror ( bitter herb) which symbolises the hard life endured by the Israelites while in Egyptian bondage. Dutch writer Marga Minco tells a story of great sorrow in an understated and powerful way.
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