The author, a classicist and cultural critic whose essays regularly appear in the NYRB, turns to the Holocaust and his family for this moving, frustrating and thought-provoking book. Two things drew him to explore the story of his great-uncle Shmiel and his wife Ester and four daughters—Braunea, Ruchela, Frydka and Lorca—his oft commented on resemblance to Shmiel and the oft referenced comment in his family, “They were killed by the Nazis.” Mendelsohn launches an epic journey to find out the who, where, how of their lives and their deaths traveling to the Ukraine, Sweden, Denmark, Israel and Australia to meet with many of the 48 Jews of Bolechow’s original 4,000 Jews. He is frustrated by the elusiveness of “the truth” but ultimately learns the real stories. Along the way, one is horrified by the human details of the Holocaust and as Mendelsohn points out, more than once, every single person murdered in the Holocaust had a story as real, rich, and noteworthy as Shmiel and his family. So very sad and so horrifying that it could happen again.