Through conversations between descendants or relatives of the people caught up in these events, Bernard Marin brings them vividly to life. Some, like Albert Göring, are well-known; others, like the boy longing for freedom on the St Louis, are ordinary. Some events, such as Kristallnacht, are familiar; others, such as the Transfer Agreement, are not. Together they create a fresh and challenging account of a time of infamy.
Breakfast with Paul: We Beg to Differ
Two old friends meet every saturday for breakfast. Outwardly, their lives have followed similar paths – both are Jewish, both migrated from Europe after the war – but their childhoods are very different and shaped them in ways they are struggling to understand. Will their differences ultimately divide them, or bring them closer together?
Surviving: My Story
Stasiek emigrated to Australia as a teenager before the Second World War, in which he served as a stretcher-bearer. He survived the Holocaust, but his beloved older brother, Beniek, whom he’d replaced on the boat to Australia, was murdered, as were his parents Pinkus and Sara, sister Gutka and many of his uncles and aunts. As an old man he reflects on his life and the price he has paid for surviving.
Bernard Marin takes readers into the heart of this turbulent time in an anthology of historical fiction. Through Bernard’s eyes, we join a young journalist who witnesses both the Chicago riot of 1968, and the uproarious trial of the ringleaders who came to be called the Chicago Seven. Read reviews..
Through the discussion between interviewer and interviewee, Bernard Marin has sought to offer insights into the personalities, passions and foibles of Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir, John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes. Read a review...
A moving testimony to a difficult father–son relationship it gives the reader an insight into the complex inner life of its author. In carefully chosen words, the author attempts to settle accounts with his troubled father, who once appeared to him so omnipotent that he could write, ‘everything that Dad said was a commandment from heaven’.
He has seen it all – the highs and lows, the powerful and the powerless – and understands that a person’s balance sheet can be a slice of their life, a financial CT scan that exposes a great deal.
With an eye for detail and a generous heart, Bernard brings you the stories that have moved him, filtered through a lively imagination and remade as fiction.
Bernard Marin’s life has been rich in experience and intriguing characters. He comes from a tradition where remembering, and forgetting, can be life-changing.
Bernard examines mental illness and family conflict, extramarital affairs and transgender issues, refugees and war, making ordinary lives extraordinary and more real than our own.
Bernard brings his meticulous eye and generous spirit to these stories, which will intrigue, shock and entertain.
Recognising the child’s athletic ability, Jack encourages him to train hard, to go for gold. But despite Jim’s outstanding success, something is wrong, and when his father finally dies, Robert discovers the terrible truth about his black brother that will explain everything.
A unique and powerful story of the stolen generation.
The problem however, was not just physical. Bernard’s distress was the result of years of denial over his poor relationship with his father, who had died fourteen years before...
This book is the story of what happened next, as Bernard Marin almost fell apart, driven by an overwhelming compulsion to discover what had been kept from him. His journey has led to this extraordinary tale of loss, discovery and redemption.
