Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed

Dunant (Brazen) brings French Holocaust survivor and writer Charlotte Delbo (1913–1985) to life in this moving biography. Born in Paris, Delbo was deported to Auschwitz in 1943 for her resistance work. After her liberation in 1945, Delbo wrote extensively on what she went through in stories, poetry, and memoir. Most notable was her stark account None of Us Will Return, which was written months after her liberation but went unpublished for 20 years. Dunant closely analyzes Delbo’s use of “deep memory” as she returned to her time in Auschwitz in various forms, and poignantly homes in on the attention to detail that marks Delbo’s writing: the “pleated skirts” in which girls got off the trains to Auschwitz, the “white muslin curtains” in the camp. Later, Delbo’s focus turned to the 1961 protests in Algeria: “Before then, no one... had written or published anything about the demonstration and its tragic outcome.” Dunant’s survey, while at times repetitive and challenging because of its persistent reexamination of trauma, nonetheless convincingly shows that Delbo’s experience of horror led her to intensely analyze language. With a sharp eye, Dunant offers a perceptive look at a lesser-known literary figure. (May)