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| The Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival | 
 enlarge | Author: Sara Tuvel Bernstein
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
Category: Book
List Price: £10.95
Buy New: £5.67
You Save: £5.28 (48%)
New (15) from £5.67
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 446354
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0425166309
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318092
EAN: 9780425166307
ASIN: 0425166309
Publication Date: July 31, 1999
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: New book. Due to problems with Standard Airmail delivery times from the USA, we have switched to using PRIORITY AIRMAIL ONLY. UK & European delivery is 7-10 days.
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| Customer Reviews:
An amazing story of survival December 25, 1998
This is an amazing book. It captures all the horror of the holocaust, and her story is told with heartbreaking honesty and and feeling. She survived through all her hardship through just courage and hope; hope that was so easy to lose under those circumstances. I would recommend it to anyone who is wants to read a story that makes you laugh, cry and touches your heart and soul. It is definitely a book you cannot set down.
Triumph of Spirit October 22, 1998
The Seamstress was a compelling story of survival and strength of the human spirit. The speaker of this book has an uncommon tenacious quality. As a Holocaust survivor she gives an angle on her experiences that you don't get from fiction. When you read fictional stories about important events the characters seem to lack a certian depth or belief factor that makes the story seem like that could not have really happened, or that it is very unlikly. In The Seamstress there seems to be a horrible factor about the war and the Holocaust that as a reader you do not understand how people could do this to other people. In the back of your mind you have to believe, though you can't have empathy for what incredible expierences that they have lived through. The sometimes simple and sometimes detailed description adds spice to the reading. Throughout this book you soon realise that Seren Tuvel is one who, because of her older sister roles, is the planer and caretaker of those around her. The strong family bonds that shape her life as an adolescent shape the lives of her family later. The losses she and others like her have suffered display clearly that there has got to be a better answer problems then wars and tyrannical leaderships. Trying to learn history from dry factual books does not give nearly the depth that this book does to the horrors of war, where one person trying to stay alive where all the odds are against them. I don't yet know the fear of being singeled out after my government has given up on me, and may no one ever have to experience what Seren Tuvel and the millions of others have. The Seamstress is a wonderful book, and for all of us who have grown up in a world where we know very little about first hand experiences of war, and understand even less, this book dramatically puts you in touch with the raw emotions of survival. In many cases now we hear of stories of survival from plane crashes and bombings, but that is only physical. What people in Camps went through was a mental, emotional, and physical survival, "We think of survival in tearms of living through life-threatening events, survival of the physical being. There are many chronicles of the dramatic acts undertaken to cling to life; the psychological exercises practiced to maintain hope and optimism. The majority of these tales, however, deal with the short-term, intense crises: surviving an airplane crash for three weeks, being trapped in a cave for five days after the wall have collapsed. Looking at the protracted version- four years of physical and emotional dehumanization- alters any perception we may have had of those who survived daily events in the camps." My personal reaction to this book was one was such a better understanding for life and a better appriciation for what people have done, and what they are doing to make the world a better place. I have gained an insight to an amazing life. Everything in this book had a purpose and added so many dimensions to Seren and the people around her. This book was unlike any book I have ever read before.
I read this book 17 years ago! February 26, 1998
I do agree with the positive reviews that this is a wonderfully written book and a heart breaking story, but I think proper credit should go the writer who fashioned this story into the work that is is today. Seventeen years ago, my sister-in-law Louise Thornton, now Louise Loots, spent about two years working with Sarah Bernstein. She laboriously transcribed tapes by and personal interviews with Sarah. This was a major undertaking. I had the privalege of reading the manuscript back then and could hardly believe that it was not being published. Evidently seventeen years ago there were too many holocaust books on the market already. I'm really glad to see this published, but proper credit should go to Louise Loots for the writing.
The best book I read in all of 1997! (And I read a lot ...) January 7, 1998
It was pure chance that I started reading this book... I then could not stop reading it. The author's words brought both laughter and tears to me. This book was more powerful for me than reading Anne Frank. The scene where the author, weighing 44 pounds, was picked up by an Allied soldier when the concentration camp survivors were freed was a powerful scene. Sara had thought it was raining as her cheeks felt wet. The wetness was from the soldier's tears as he carried her. I hope this incredible book receives the recognition that it deserves.
More than a holocaust memoir, the life of an amazing woman November 7, 1997
While much of this memoir is about the Holocaust, the story of Seran Tuval is not about a victim but a victor. It is about a strong wonderful woman's journey through the 20th century. It begins with how Seran deals with the wrenching social change from tradition to modernity in post WWI Eastern Europe. Changes that lead Seran in her early teens to run away from her family and rural village to build a career as dressmaker to the wealthy women of Bucharest well before her 18th birthday. It is about boundless commitment to family and loved ones when tyranny threatens life itself. And it is about rebirth without recrimination as Seran rebuilds her life and family after the camps. It is what Faulkner called "a true story of the human heart". A wonderful read.
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