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A Life in Pieces:

The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski
Front Cover
2 Reviews
W W Norton & Company Incorporated, May 27, 2003 - Biography & Autobiography - 256 pages
In 1997, Binjamin Wilkomirski arrived in New York to read from his prize-winning book Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood, his memoir of an early childhood lost to the concentration camps at Majdanek and Auschwitz, and to raise money for the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. This orphaned survivor also came as the guest of honor to the family reunion of the Wilburs (once Wilkomirskis). The Wilburs hoped to trace the unrecorded link between the Wilkomirskis of Riga in Latvia and the name that Binjamin remembered. The Wilburs and the media embraced Binjamin as a humanitarian whose eloquent story typified that of many child survivors.

One year later, however, Binjamin was publicly accused of being a gentile imposter: on August 27, 1998, a German novelist named Daniel Ganzfried announced to the world that he had uncovered documentary evidence proving that Fragments was an elaborate fiction. Yet Binjamin still insisted his wartime memories carried more weight than the documents against him, proclaiming, "Nobody has to believe me." Those who continued to believe Binjamin included child survivors, psychotherapists, and his publishers.

Who was Binjamin Wilkomirski? Why would someone want to be him? And why would so many of us want to believe him? Wilbur family member Blake Eskin recounts the dispute over Binjamin's authenticity through reportage, interviews with Binjamin's acquaintances, and a visit to Riga in search of actual Wilkomirski relatives. In his absorbing narrative Eskin records the reactions of the media, the child-survivor community, and the Wilburs themselves to reveal larger disagreements over the reliability of memory, the value of testimony, and the individual's relationship to history.

Part biography, part mystery, and part memoir, Eskin's A Life in Pieces is an important and lasting contribution to the literature of the Holocaust.

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Review: A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski

User Review  - John - Goodreads

Note: I could not put this book down! An excellent documentation of the gentile who posed as a holocaust surviver and wrote a fake memoir entitled "Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood". Other ... Read full review

Review: A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski

User Review  - Anna - Goodreads

An excellent book for anyone interested in the representation of the Holocaust in literature and ethical concerns within the survivor community. Fluently written, with a gentle touch that is rare in ... Read full review

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References from web pages

A Life in Pieces (Main Page)
Blake Eskin. A Life in Pieces. The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski. A searing account of the rise and fall of the author of Fragments, ...
www.wwnorton.com/ catalog/ spring03/ 032445.htm

The Man Who Never Was - New York Times
The Man Who Never Was. By JONATHAN LEAR. A LIFE IN PIECES The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski. By Blake Eskin. Illustrated. 251 pp. New York: ...
query.nytimes.com/ gst/ fullpage.html?res=9C06E4DB143FF937A15751C0A9649C8B63& sec=& spon=& pagewanted=print

Binjamin Wilkomirski - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blake Eskin: A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski, New York and London: Norton, 2002, ISBN 0-393-04871-3; Daniel Ganzfried: Die ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Binjamin_Wilkomirski

Real Horrors, Phony Claims
Blake Eskin’s “A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski” (Norton, 251 pages, $25.95) is a conscientious account of the “Fragments” ...
www.tomgrossmedia.com/ HolocaustHorrors.html

Spectator, The: victim - of his imagination, The
bnet. findarticles > Spectator, The > Apr 27, 2002 > Article > Print friendly. victim - of his imagination, The. Richmond, Theo ...
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_qa3724/ is_200204/ ai_n9067984/ print

New Statesman - Holocaust hoaxer
A Life in Pieces Blake Eskin Aurum Press, 245pp, £16.99 ISBN 1854107623
www.newstatesman.com/ 200205200044

Truth, Lies, and Politics in the Debate over Testimonial Writing
about the affair, A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilko-. mirski. As a result of these multiple exposés, Fragments was withdrawn from ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ the_comparatist/ v030/ 30.1walford.pdf

Blake Eskin - Fass Speakers Bureau
Blake Eskin is the author of A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski (ww Norton), named a New York Times Notable Book. ...
www.fasspr.com/ fsb/ BlakeEskin.html

Interesting Times: The New Generation of Holocaust "Survivors"
W. hen I worked at a small bookstore,. and then later visiting a friend. whose son was autistic, I learned of the the-. ory (admittedly not widely held) ...
www.nowherecity.com/ places/ survivors_djm.pdf

【楽天市場】A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin ...
A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski（A Life in Pieces: ... A Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski ...
item.rakuten.co.jp/ book/ 4839674/

About the author (2003)

He has written for The New Yorker, the Forward. He lives in New York City.

Bibliographic information

QR code for A Life in Pieces
TitleA Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski
AuthorBlake Eskin
Editionillustrated
PublisherW W Norton & Company Incorporated, 2003
ISBN0393324451, 9780393324457
Length256 pages
Subjects › 

Biography & Autobiography / Historical
Biography & Autobiography / Literary
Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
History / Holocaust
History / Jewish
  
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