The Most Precious of Cargoes, JeanClaude Grumberg
The Most Precious of Cargoes, JeanClaude Grumberg
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The Most Precious of Cargoes
A Tale

Author: Jean-Claude Grumberg

Narrator: Adam Lazarre-White

Unabridged: 2 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/29/2020


Synopsis

Set during the height of World War II, a powerful and unsettling tale about a woodcutter and his wife, who finds a mysterious parcel thrown from a passing train.Once upon a time in an enormous forest lived a woodcutter and his wife. The woodcutter is very poor and a war rages around them, making it difficult for them to put food on the table. Yet every night, his wife prays for a child.A Jewish father rides on a train holding twin babies. His wife no longer has enough milk to feed both children. In hopes of saving them both, he wraps his daughter in a shawl and throws her into the forest.While foraging for food, the wife finds a bundle, a baby girl wrapped in a shawl. Although she knows harboring this baby could lead to her death, she takes the child home.Set against the horrors of the Holocaust and told with a fairytale-like lyricism, The Most Precious of Cargoes is a fable about family and redemption which reminds us that humanity can be found in the most inhumane of places.

About Jean-Claude Grumberg

Jean-Claude Grumberg was born in 1939. He started out as an actor before writing his first play in 1968. Since then he has written more than forty scripts for the stage and film. He currently lives and works in his native France. He was inspired by the loss of his own father in a Nazi concentration camps to write The Most Precious of Cargoes. He lives in France.


Reviews

I struggled at first with this review. What could I possibly say about a fairytale that at its core is about the Holocaust ? I thought I might just say what I usually say at the end a review of a Holocaust story - how very important these stories are and how we need to keep reading them so we never......more

Goodreads review by Karen

This is a beautiful fable .. just around 100 pages. Translated from French. It’s about the Holocaust horror ..and a Jewish man’s act of desperation to save one of his children (a twin) by tossing her off a transport train.. an old woodcutters wife who is childless … picks her up and takes her home. I l......more

Note: I received a free copy of this book. Below is my honest review. A very short WWII story, so, heart wrenching, of course 💔 But it reads like poetry and is lovely. 😍 I didn’t get the epilogue though… it felt snarky 😬 perhaps that’s due to the translation though? 🤷🏼‍♀️ Thank you @goodreads and @har......more