Aaron's Leap [Paperback]

“Told in clear and beautiful prose,Aaron’s Leapis a deeply moving portrait of love, sacrifice, and the transformative power of art in a time of brutal uncertainty.” —SIMON VAN BOOY, author ofThe Illusion of Separateness

Based on the real-life story of Bauhaus artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis,Aaron’s Leapis framed by the lens of a twenty first-century Israeli film crew delving into the extraordinary life of a woman who taught art to children in the Nazi transport camp of Terezín and died in Auschwitz. Aided by the granddaughter of one of the artist’s pupils, the filmmakers begin to uncover buried secrets from a time when personal and artistic decisions became matters of life-and-death. Spanning a century of Central European history, the novel evokes the founding impulses, theories, and personalities of the European Modernist movement (with characters modeled after Oskar Kokoschka, Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel) and shows what it takes to grapple with a troubled history, “leap” into the unknown, and dare to be oneself.

Magdaléna Platzováwas raised in Prague and has lived in Washington, DC and New York City, where she taught literature at NYU, and now lives in Lyon, France. She is the author of a children’s book, two collections of short stories, and three novels, includingAaron’s Leap,a Lidové Noviny Book of the Year Award finalist, hailed by theFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungas a novel that “must be counted among the best written by contemporary Czech writers.” It is her first book to be published in English.

A multigenerational saga inspired by Bauhaus artists and the impact of the Holocaust’s lingering legacy on their children and protégés

Lidov? Noviny Book of the Year Award Finalist

Beautifully written, with masterful creation of atmosphere and sculptlS