page_title: A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz
section_title: Background, analysis and reviews
hierarchical_section_title: A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz / Synopsis / Background, analysis and reviews
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Göran Rosenberg på Akademibokhandeln City i Stockholm 28 april 2012.
context_page_description: A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz is a 2012 book by Swedish author Göran Rosenberg, variously described as a novel and a non-fiction narrative book.
  As of 2014, the book has been translated into nine languages and sold more than 200,000 copies.
  It won the August Prize in 2012 and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in 2014.
context_section_description: While the book in Sweden was published as a documentary novel, it has in other countries been described as a non-fiction memoir. The book is based on the author's memories and research, as well as the memories of his mother Hala Rosenberg, sister Lillian Rosenberg-Roth and his cousins. Family members also provided documentation. Letters exchanged between the author's parents while Hala was in Poland and David in Sweden are quoted in the book as important background material, as are other family letters, including from Göran as a child. A few family photos are included, including one of Göran as a toddler with both his parents in front of an apartment building which is used on the cover of one edition. The book also makes use of medical records. In addition the author uses Swedish and foreign public sources, like history books and old newspapers. As part of preparation for writing the book, Rosenberg traveled to Germany and Poland.
  The story of his parents is told through the voice of the author, who refers to himself as "The Child". Reviewers have described the book as just as much about the author Göran Rosenberg as about his father David Some reviewers also draw parallels between the scepticism and xenophobia that David Rosenberg experienced in postwar Europe with the experience of refugees in contemporary Sweden and Europe.
  
  The book received many positive reviews. Writing in the Financial Times Philippe Sands describes the book as "a towering and wondrous work about memory and experience, exquisitely crafted, beautifully written, humane, generous, devastating, yet somehow also hopeful". Hester Vaizey in The Independent found the story 
  utterly unforgettable, breathing life into the painful experiences of a couple who, like many other displaced Jews in Europe at the end of World War Two, were intent on making a success of survival after the world had turned its back on them. It is a chilling reminder of how the consequences of war long outlived the ceasefire.
  In a more critical review, Thomas Harding in New Statesman sees the book as a non-fiction narrative and finds that it relies too much on speculation. He writes that "Rosenberg's assertion of authorial integrity at the beginning of the book is undermined throughout. He does speculate; and then goes further, reproducing a novelist's description of life in a cattle cart, thus stepping into the world of fiction". Readers are invited by this narrative technique to consider how we reach an accurate depiction of past times and situations that are as vast and horrific as the Holocaust.
caption: The author Göran Rosenberg
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