The Bureau of Unknown Fates - by Gaëlle Nohant Hardcover

Book Synopsis

In the tradition of The Lost and The Postcard, a powerful novel of loss and restitution in and after wartime, like a detective novel in reverse.

When young French woman marries and moves to her German husband's small hometown, Bad Arolsen, she finds a world where no one discusses what the locals did during the war. She has no idea that her life will be changed forever when she accepts a job at the secretive International Tracing Service--founded by the Allies at the end of WWII to help trace the fates of millions of wartime dead and displaced. Meticulous and conscientious, Irene quickly becomes obsessed with her work--at the cost of her personal life.

Years later, she is entrusted with returning thousands of confiscated objects, recovered from the liberated camps. Irène pieces together the identity of each object's rightful owner, in order to give the descendants of the victims something to remember their lost relatives by. A faded cloth doll, a medallion, an embroidered handkerchief . . . every object contains its secrets. During her research, Irène meets people who will inspire and guide her from Lublin to Warsaw, from Berlin to Paris, to discover a past that concerns her personally. In so doing, she glimpses humanity--at its worst, but also, its best--and looking for the dead, she finds the living.

Weaving together the trajectories of these individual lives with the collective memory of Europe, this devastatingly beautiful novel is suffused with wisdom and compassion.

Review Quotes

"A compelling, evocative, and highly original novel...Most importantly, Nohant reminds us of the duty to remember, for in uncovering the stories of those we've lost, we honor them and make peace with the past. This is a meticulously researched novel with many layers that will stay with readers long after the final page. A must read!" --Adriana Allegri, author of The Sunflower House

"A gripping, poetic and historically accurate description of one of the principal institutions of Holocaust research, the International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen. In The Bureau of Unknown Fates, Gaëlle Nohant gave me access to the archives, a place full of secrets, withheld for decades. I couldn't stop reading this seemingly simple but vital story of returning objects to their rightful place. I was transported by the violence, grief, trauma, generational secrets, and ultimately the power of memory and restitution."
--Gwen Strauss, NYT bestselling author of The Nine

"This is an important book, intertwining history with a capital H and the personal quest of a determined archivist. Because it engages with themes that have long preoccupied me -- the traces of the past, the memories held in objects and places, the indelible scars of history--Gaëlle Nohant's novel touched me profoundly. The Bureau of Unknown Fates is an unforgettable read."
--Tatiana de Rosnay, bestselling author of Sarah's Key

"Nohant tells the story of a horror too huge for the human mind to comprehend -- six million souls -- in deeply human and personal terms. A journey toward knowledge and closure that reads like a gripping mystery stirring the heart as well as the intellect. At once, a spellbinding novel and a moral triumph."
--Ellen Feldman, author of Paris Never Leaves You

About the Author