The Absent Moon

A Memoir of a Short Childhood and a Long Depression

By: Luiz Schwarcz, Eric M. B. Becker - translator

Narrated by: Theodore Copeland

“A profoundly emotional book, and a brave one.” —The New Yorker

A literary sensation in Brazil, Luiz Schwarcz’s brave and tender memoir interrogates his ordeal of bipolar disorder in the context of a family story of murder, dispossession, and silence—the long echo of the Holocaust across generations

As a child, Luiz Schwarcz knew little about his grandfather and namesake, Lajos. Only later did he learn that Lajos, a devout Hungarian Jew, had been put on a train to a Nazi death camp with his son André, whom he ordered to leap to freedom at a rail crossing while he himself was carried on to death. What young Luiz did know was that his father, André, who had emigrated to Brazil, was an unhappy and silent man. Luiz blossomed into the family prodigy, becoming a groundbreaking literary publisher. He found a home in the family silence—a home that he filled with reading.

But then, at a high point of outward success, Luiz was brought low by a mental breakdown. The Absent Moon is the story of his journey both to that point and back from it, as Luiz learned to forge a more honest relationship with his own mind, with his family, and with their shared past. The culmination is this extraordinary book—the product of a lifetime’s reflection, by a master storyteller.

Very nice, sad memoir

Had a good time reading along, some parts felt a bit repetitive but than again it's speaking a lot about depression, mental health , suicide and ww2 . Pretty short read recommend it