Maybe Esther

For me, reading Maybe Esther was like an in depth literary episode of the television programme Who Do You Think You Are, but one where all the relatives had interesting stories. Katja Petrowskaja shares her thoughts and emotions with us every step of the way so I was just as fascinated by her journey into her genealogical past as I was in what she discovered. This nonfiction book actually followed on well from my previous read, the novel The Woman At 1000 Degrees, because both explore darker aspects of twentieth century Europe and unveiled Second World War events about which I had not previously been aware.

Maybe Esther introduces a dozen or so of Petrowskaya's ancestors, most of them ordinary people who would otherwise probably never had chapters of books devoted to them. Other than one assassin, these people bore the brunt of history rather than making it, yet I felt I learned more about Ukrainian Jewish life from these vignettes than I would have done from a traditional history book. I liked how Petrowskaya repeatedly interlinks the stories so I came away with a good idea of everyone as part of a family, not just as individuals.

At one point, Petrowskaya talks about the difficulties of seeing past the Second World War and the Holocaust in her investigations. I admit when I realised the book was about a Jewish family in Eastern Europe, that was exactly where my thoughts turned and horrific events such as the Babi Yar massacres in Kiev must not be allowed to be forgotten again. This book however also explores the decades prior to the War and shows glimpses of life as a Soviet child of the 1950s. It is obviously a very personal memoir, but I felt it also has a wide appeal in its depictions of a family that could have been any one of millions.