Magda's Daughter: A Hidden Child's Journey Home

by Evi Blaikie

Book Overview

To survive the long shadow of the Third Reich, many children were placed in hiding, forced to keep their true identities--names, religion, places of birth, even gender--secret. Among these hidden children was Evelyne Juliette, born in Paris to privileged Hungarian immigrants of high intellect and great passion. Scarcely a year following her birth, France would fall to the Nazis, plunging Europe further into chaos and placing Evi's family among hundreds...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558614435
• ISBN13: 9781558614437
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Feminist Press
• Length: 277 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A clear-eyed look at life during and after the war

What I like best about this book is its straightforwardness. It is not mushy nor is it unnecessarily upsetting. Rather it is an honest and clear-eyed account of a wonderful woman, her colorful family, and their harrowing experiences during and after WWII. My 14-year-old daughter read it also and talked about it for weeks. Ms. Blaikie is her new hero. And she is one of my heroes too.

a new story and well written too

Evi Blakie is one of a "new" group of Holocaust survivors - the hidden children who spent their earliest and most formative years living false identities. These children began their lives when the war was over, trying to forge a new and genuine identity, trying to just to "normal" after spending their entire lives thinking war was normal. Like more recent children of war (in Rwanda, Bosnia, etc.) they must spend their entire lives trying to figure out who they are. But what makes this book so wonderful is that it not only tells a story not previously told, and not even that it is a more universal story than we would like to believe - but that she writes well - with strong language and vivid imagery that holds the reader spellbound throughout the telling - and breathless at the end.

A Fascinating True Story

I am a New Yorker who reads on the subway commuting to the office. On two occasions I missed my stop because I was so engrossed in "Magda's Daughter". This book is a tale of human adaptation and resilence. When I finished the book I was in great admiration of Ms. Blaikie. She is a woman of strength and insight.It certainly made an impression on how lucky I was to be born in the US after the war and reminded me of the immense suffering caused by the Nazis and the horrendous consequences of the Holocaust.Thanks for such a good read. It was a pleasure to get to know Ms. Blaikie.

Excellent

The perspective of a Jewish child growing up in the sureal world of German occupied Hungary tears at your heart. An amazing adventure of survival. Surprising, very good

Read it for pleasure, read it for education, just read it!

I could not put it down! It is funny and sad, the life's ironies are well described. This is more than a holocoust story. Anybody, who is interested in the effect of war on children should read it. This is a feminist book in the best meaning of the word feminist. A woman's strugle for identity, which is well decribed here, is one of the most important goal of the feminist literature.We are living in a time, when children are victims of wars. We should think about them and their future.