A Damaged Mirror: A story of memory and redemption by Yael Shahar and Ovadya ben Malka

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Alex was seventeen years old when he was deported together with his family to Birkenau. His mother and younger sister were gassed on arrival. Selected to work in the Birkenau Sonderkommando, Alex lived on, his memory filled with the death of a people. He was left unable to speak of what he had done to survive, locked in the silent prison of his guilt.

Now, more than sixty years later, Alex is ready to face his memories in search of atonement. His spiritual struggle will lead him back into his past, and into the long and storied history of his people in search of an answer to the silence of God.

Yael, born and raised in Texas, has no connection with Alex or with the world he has lost. And yet her seemingly idyllic life is haunted by a dark memory of something she could not have lived. Her search for the source of the memory will lead her on a quest spanning three continents, and eventually to a new life in Israel. But her true journey will lead into memory itself, as she helps Alex to keep his promises to the dead.

A Damaged Mirror is an exploration of the boundaries between right and wrong, choices and choicelessness, and what happens when we cross those boundaries. It challenges notions of black and white, and calls into question the sovereignty of death itself.