A Cross and a Star
A Cross and a Star
Memoirs of a Jewish Girl in Chile
In this classic memoir that explores the Nazi presence in the south of Chile after the war, Marjorie Agosín writes in the voice of her mother, Frida, who grew up as the daughter of European Jewish immigrants in Chile in the World War II era. Woven into the narrative are the stories of Frida's father, who had to leave Vienna in 1920 because he fell in love with a Christian cabaret dancer; of her paternal grandmother, who arrived in Chile later with a number tattooed on her arm; and of her great-grandmother from Odessa, who loved the Spanish language so much that she repeated its harmonious sounds even in her sleep. Agosín's A Cross and a Star is a moving testament to endurance and to the power of memory and words.
This edition includes a collection of important new photographs, a new afterword by the author, and a foreword by Ruth Behar.
A beautiful tale of fortitude, captured in filigree and song.'--Oscar Hijuelos
Marjorie Agosín's poetic voice in one breath captures the astounding beauty of the southern tip of the world and the painful memories of a sensitive Jewish girl growing up among Nazi colonizers.'--Isabel Allende
Unique and mesmerizing. . . . A Cross and a Star reads like a journey to the past and the hope of the new world.'--Elena Poniatowska
A passionate, fantastical, poetic book: Marjorie Agosín's power as a poet has never been more evident than in this beautiful memoir of her mother's life.'--Sara Paretsky
Marjorie Agosín is the Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Wellesley College. She is the award-winning author of numerous works of poetry, fiction, and literary criticism. Her works include I Lived on Butterfly Hill, The Maps of Memory: Return to Butterfly Hill, Always from Somewhere Else: A Memoir of My Chilean Jewish Father, and Secrets in the Sand: The Young Women of Juárez.
