The Boy from Boskovice

What makes a good man bad? This is the extraordinary story of the author's father, a Holocaust survivor who left a trail of pain and secrets in his wake

‘The compelling story of a daughter's quest to find out the disturbing truth of who her father really was’ Sarah Helm, author of If This is a Woman 

Vicky Unwin had always known her father – an erstwhile intelligence officer and respected United Nations diplomat – was Czech, but it was not until a stranger turned up on her doorstep that she discovered he was also Jewish.

So began a quest to discover the truth about his past – one that perhaps would help answer the niggling doubts she had always had about her ‘perfect’ father. Finally persuading him to allow her to open a closely guarded cache of family books and papers, Vicky discovered the identity of her grandfather: the tormented author and diplomat Hermann Ungar, hugely controversial in both life and in death, who was a protégé and possible lover of Thomas Mann, and a friend of Berthold Brecht and Stefan Zweig. How much of her father’s child was Vicky – and how much of his father’s child was he?

As she works to uncover deeply buried family secrets, she finds herself slowly unpicking the lingering power of ‘survivors’ guilt’ on the generations that followed the Holocaust, and learns, via a deathbed confession, that she has a half-sister.

Together, the sisters attempted to come to terms with what had made their father into the deeply flawed, complex, yet charismatic man he has always been, journeying together through grief and heartache towards forgiveness.

‘Riveting and true and beautifully written’ Annie Tempest

‘An intimate exploration of family – and the damage that can be passed from one generation to the next' Jo-Anne Richards, author of The Innocence of Roast Chicken

‘A fascinating, rich tale, which explores the infinite complexity of human nature when squeezed by the forces of history’ Michela Wrong, author of Do Not Disturb

Hardback: 344pp

Published: Wilton Square (January 2021) 

ISBN: 9781783529063