How to Be a Refugee

One Family's Story of Exile and Belonging

How to Be a Refugee
Simon May
RRP:
NZ$ 24.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 18.74
Paperback
h198 x 130mm - 320pg
6 Jan 2022 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781529042863
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
The most familiar fate of Jews living in Hitler' s Germany is either emigration or deportation to concentration camps. But there was another, much rarer, side to Jewish life at that time: denial of your origin to the point where you manage to erase almost all consciousness of it. You refuse to believe that you are Jewish. How to Be a Refugee is Simon May' s gripping account of how three sisters - his mother and his two aunts - grappled with what they felt to be a lethal heritage. Their very different trajectories included conversion to Catholicism, marriage into the German aristocracy, securing ' Aryan' status with high-ranking help from inside Hitler' s regime, and engagement to a card-carrying Nazi. Even after his mother fled to London from Nazi Germany and Hitler had been defeated, her instinct for self-concealment didn' t abate. Following the early death of his father, also a German Jewish refugee, May was raised a Catholic and forbidden to identify as Jewish or German or British. In the face of these banned inheritances, May embarks on a quest to uncover the lives of the three sisters as well as the secrets of a grandfather he never knew. His haunting story forcefully illuminates questions of belonging and home - questions that continue to press in on us today.
A meditation on his own family inheritance and that strange historical entity that was the German Jew - so in love with the fatherland' s cultural forms and ideals that its killing politics grew nigh invisible - Simon May' s memoir is both deeply felt and profoundly thought. It is also beautifully conceived - propelling us from the innocence of childhood when questions are hard to put through to the realities of age. This is a superb book. -- Lisa Appignanesi, author of Everyday Madness: On Grief, Anger, Loss and Love. A deeply moving and perceptive memoir of a family caught in the jaws of a terrible history, May shows how individual lives and relationships reflect the larger tragedies, the losses, hopes and loves, of oppressive and destructive times. It is a powerful story beautifully told, and at the same time a significant document in the record of the twentieth century. -- A. C. Grayling
Simon May was born in London, the son of a violinist and a brush manufacturer. Visiting professor of philosophy at King' s College London, his books include Love: A New Understanding of an Ancient Emotion; Love: A History; Nietzsche' s Ethics and his War on ' Morality' ; The Power of Cute; and Thinking Aloud, a collection of his own aphorisms. His work has been translated into ten languages and regularly features in major newspapers worldwide. For many years he has intended to move ' back' to Berlin, but has yet to do so.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781529042863
Published: 6 Jan 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Picador
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Format: Paperback
Height: 198mm
Width: 130mm
Spine: 24mm
Weight: 256g
Pages: 320

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information