Praise for Gabriële

"Like Gabriële herself, this book takes on big ideas about modern art and modern life--without losing sight of the people caught and crushed in those turning gears."--The New York Times

"A loving tribute to an important figure of the avant garde art movement who was nearly forgotten to history."--TIME Magazine, A Best Book of April 2025

"Gabriële is a revealing, heartrending biographical novel about a complicated woman whose imprint on art history is undeniable."--Foreword Reviews

"The Berest sisters follow up Anne's The Postcard with a colorful portrait of their great-grandmother Gabriële Buffet-Picabia. With lyrical prose, the Berests blend historical context with more intimate insights, such as their attempt to understand why the Picabias were cold to their children. Readers with an affinity for early 20th-century art will especially enjoy this."--Publishers Weekly

"Gabriele would have been a wonderful person to know. Reading this book is the next best thing. Muse to the makers of the modern art movement, brilliant musician in her own right, epic mother figure to a manic menagerie of creative intellects, Gabriele Buffet was one of a kind. This loving portrait of a wild time in the art world reveals a fascinating family history by two sisters delving deep into their familial past."--Reading the West

"An atmospheric excavation of an unusual woman and marriage, both intriguing and remote."--Kirkus Reviews

"Sensitive, refined, intelligent... An unmitigated success."--Les Inrockuptibles

"Wonderful! Two sisters, both novelists, have brought Gabriële Buffet back to life, their words intertwining with luminous tenderness in this finely crafted novel."--L'Obs

"Gabriële is at once a beautiful epic, an intimate family saga, and a meticulous investigation...It tells the story of a turbulent time when everything seemed possible and the story of inherited pain and long-hidden family tragedies."--Le Parisien (Week-End)

"Gabriele was a powerful woman who has been kept in the shadows of history. It is time to bring her back into the light, and Anne and Claire Berest have done just that in this beautiful and radiant book."--L'Express

"Thanks to Anne and Claire Berest's gracefully crafted novel, Gabriële is finally taking her first steps toward posterity/eternity."--Le Point

"A captivating subject such as this, and personalities such as these, demand care, and that this precisely what the authors have shown them through their meticulous research and beautifully crafted novel...Gabriële is also a chronicle of one of the essential moments of what we now call the avant-gardes."--Le Monde des Livres

Praise for The Postcard

"Powerful, meticulously imagined... The Postcard (translated into a lucid and precise English by Tina Kover) takes its readers on a deep dive into one Jewish family's history, and, inextricably, into the devastating history of the Holocaust in France... [A] powerful literary work... that contains a single grand-scale act of self-discovery and many moments of historical illumination."--Julie Orringer, The New York Times Book Review

"The Postcard is also a historical detective story about how to uncover those truths--and what remains forever lost in the fragments of documentation that leave a scattered trail."--Lucas Wittmann, TIME Magazine

"Moving...Ms. Berest has done her research, artfully weaving grim facts and figures into her family history...Let's hope that a book like this, which encompasses both the monstrosities of the past and the dangers of the present, will guard us from complacency."--Heller McAlpin, The Wall Street Journal

"In what feels like a literary magic trick, Berest transforms her own family's complex and heartbreaking Holocaust history into a novel that masterfully blends elements of drama, mystery and philosophy. It's propulsive yet deep--an intimate, exacting contemplation of loss that somehow ends in love."--Kate Tuttle, People Magazine

"Stunning...[The Postcard] leaves us wondering whether the opposite of memory is not forgetting, but rather indifference."--Leslie Camhi, The New Yorker

"The Postcard is...a powerful exploration of family trauma...transmitted in the womb or down the generations; a longing for what we don't know and can never know of the people whose lives are responsible for our own existence, and an internalization of the very worst that humans can do to one another, visited on one's own family."--Lauren Elkin, The Washington Post

"Reading this novel is intimate...It is as though Berest has taken us by the hand to lead us through the family home and search for the family graves that don't exist. Who are your invisible ones? she continues to ask through the tour, and we are forced to answer, both on her account and our own."--Virginia Reeves, New York Journal of Books

"The Postcard recreates in stunning detail the lives of Berest's lost family members and weaves them into a detective story, loosely centered on the postcard."--The New York Times

"A can't-miss novel."--Chicago Review of Books

"An "un-put-down-able" book is like a double rainbow -- rare and oh so magical. Titles like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain,  A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith, and The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton... Now comes another un-put-down-able book, The Postcard, by French writer Anne Berest."--Kitty Kelley, Washington Independent Review of Books

"Whenever I put it down, I was pulled back by the sheer strength of Berest's storytelling. Her ability to conjure real people in surreal circumstances while digging deeply into her own psyche is profound. My understanding of that time and my post-war family's reaction to it runs deeper as a result."--Helene Siegel,  Jewish Journal

"Straddling the boundary between fiction and memoir, this is one of the most inventive books I read this year.... A must-read for anyone who wants to understand how European amnesia about the Holocaust affects Jewish citizens today."--Foreword,  A Best Book of the Year

"In this riveting, poignant and unflinching autofiction, Berest (the great-granddaughter of painter Francis Picabia and Resistance fighter Gabriële Buffet) pursues the mystery ruthlessly....This brilliant novel, at times harrowing in its telling, is surely one of the finest of the year."--Janet Somerville, The Toronto Star

"Undeniably compelling...A testament to the power of imagination and an investigation of empathy."--Vogue, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year

"Intimate, profound, essential."--ELLE Magazine

★ "Phenomenal...powerful...brilliant."--Publishers Weekly  (starred review)

★ "Not only a significant contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust but a moving reflection on loss, memory, and the past, in equal measures heartwarming and heartrending. Highly recommended."--Library Journal  (starred review)

★ "Electrifying...Berest is aware that she's relating a tragedy, but her narration rejects the impulse to let her family members' stories rest at that...Acknowledging both the horrors of the Holocaust and the humanity of those it targeted, The Postcard is a commanding family memoir."--Foreword Reviews  (starred review)

★ "[A] brilliant work of autofiction...The book derives enormous power from seemingly small details...This is a gut-wrenching, exceptional work."--Shelf Awareness  (starred review)

★ "A unique piece of autofiction that unfolds like a thriller while seamlessly addressing a number of hefty social issues past and present... Berest's moving storytelling brings her ancestors' story to life in dramatic, artful ways, often interspersing historical events with running discussions between mother and daughter."--Alice Cary, BookPage (starred review)

"A masterfully woven family story covering five generations of women, The Postcard is a true story that reads like a novel, and a historical narrative with lessons still relevant to today."--Lilith Magazine, A Best Book of 2023

"Absolutely compelling and engrossing, The Postcard by Anne Berest and translated by Tina Kover is a story of memory and loss and a new standout in literature about the Holocaust."--Caitlin Baker, Electric Literature, "Indie Booksellers Recommend 13 Books for 2023"

"I loved this book so much. I cannot stop thinking about it...It's a book that will haunt you and make you think about family legacy, traditions, and so much more."--Elisa Shoenberger, Book Riot, A Best Book of Spring 2023

"Will deepen readers' understanding of that horrific event while clarifying the role of memory, loss, and the past."--Library Journal, "Best World Literature of 2023."

"In this sweeping family saga, Berest illuminates opportunities for kindness and betrayal in wartime France and the long echo of the Holocaust's atrocities...will appeal to fans of All the Light We Cannot See and The Book Thief."--Booklist

"The story overall is poignant, tense, restless, and ultimately pivotal, as Anne not only solves her mystery, but, more importantly, gains her identity...The anguish and horror of genocide arrive with fresh impact in an absorbing personal account."--Kirkus Reviews

"Combines the excitement of a thriller with the emotional power of a requiem...A moving, extraordinary book."--Le Point