Books by Jean-Claude Grumberg

For readers of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Book Thief, Jean-Claude Grumberg's haunting fable, an enormous bestseller in his native France, tells a story of the Holocaust and the remarkable acts of kindness of which people are capable.

Introducing the English-language audience to the work of one of France's leading contemporary dramatists-winner of seven Molieres, the Pulitzer Prize of France-these plays offer vivid insights into French Jewish life in post-Holocaust Europe.

This important drama was named best play of the 1979 Paris season and has subsequently moved audiences throughout the world with its simple story about seamstresses struggling to recover from the aftermath of World War II. The central character struggles to keep herself and her two sons alive while she waits for word about her husband who was deported to a concentration camp. Her heroism and determination are especially poignant, for she is a portrait of the playwright's mother. There is an evocative balance of humor and pathos in this excellent play, as well as a number of fine monologues and six excellent female roles.