One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Vanished World of Jewish Rhodes

Description

'Having the last word can be very lonely.' Nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never shared the full details of her past with anyone. That is until she met Michael Frank, and asked him to help her polish a talk she was to give about life in the Juderia of Rhodes. Neither of them could know that this was the first of one hundred Saturdays that they would spend in each other's company. Courageous and sharp, elegant and sly, Stella is a formidable modern Scheherazade whose Saturday instalments give a window into the vibrant, vanished world of the Jews of Rhodes. She unspools for the first time the long threads of her history - from the sun-soaked shores of her childhood, to the fifteen harrowing months she spent in camps scattered throughout Europe, and finally to the United States and New York as one of only 150 Jews from Rhodes to survive. Featuring colour illustrations based on Stella's family photographs, One Hundred Saturdays is an unusual and extraordinary memoir. It is a testament to the soul-saving power of relationships; to memories revisited; to resilience. It's not only a vital slice of history that has largely been ignored, but a story of the possibility of an ever-evolving self, even after confronting Hell.

Michael Frank is the author of the memoir The Mighty Franks and the novel What is Missing. His essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic and The TLS, among other publications. He served as a Contributing Writer to the Los Angeles Times Book Review for nearly ten years. A recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives with his family in New York City and Liguria, Italy. Maira Kalman was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and is now an artist, writer, and designer who since 1954 has lived in New York City. She has a daughter, a son, and two grandchildren.

'Praise for The Mighty Franks' - : 'A marvelous, clear-eyed memoir ... almost thriller-like ... beautifully written' - Wall Street Journal 'It was so good that I had to read it twice' - The New Statesman 'Frank is a master of self-reflection, under the bowl of blue sky and in those closeted canyons. He says nothing in an ordinary way; everything has a dreamlike smoothness, born out of his extended act of retrieval and the remembered violence of emotion and inconstancy ... I doubt you'll read a better memoir this year' - Guardian 'Witty, moving ... beautifully written and timely' - The Times Literary Supplement