In a Europe torn by war and revolution, Berta Altmann comes of age as a gifted artist and independent woman. Her search for freedom leads her from Vienna to the Bauhaus school, Weimar Berlin, and Prague. As she encounters the celebrated artists of her time, she engages in aesthetic and ideological battles that will prove to have life-and-death consequences. Based on the real-life story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis who taught art to children in the Nazi transport camp of Terezín and died in Auschwitz, Aaron’s Leap is framed by the lens of a 21st-century Israeli film crew that unknowingly unleashes the haunting force of buried history.

(Description from the English edition)

Praise

“[Aaron’s Leap] must count among the best written [books] by contemporary Czech authors . . . impressive not only for its story, but also for the scope of its reflections.”

— Hans-Peter Riese, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Selected published translations (3)

Aarons Sprung German

Aaron's Leap English

Le Saut d'Aaron French