Days and Memory

In Auschwitz, memory meant life: remembering the humanity extinguished by the death camps and hoping to survive to tell what had been endured. In Auschwitz, Charlotte Delbo collected from memory the plays, stories, and poems that fed her companions' spirits. There she committed to memory all that she would one day describe for future generations. In Days and Memory, her last book, completed shortly before her death, Delbo becomes the voice of memory. Poems and vignettes, dialogues and meditations, interweave her experience in the death camp with the sufferings of others around the world, depicting the power of dignity and decency in the face of inhumanity. A remarkable achievement, stark and lyrical, passionate and fiery, this virtuoso performance demands attention-and rewards readers with beauty, sorrow, and hope.