An expansive yet intimate memoir of modern Jewish identity, following the diaspora of the author's own family to assay the impact of memory, displacement and disquiet

A gifted journalist, who has powerfully conveyed the grief of the bereft in various international trouble spots, here wrestles with his own grief for a mother who suffered through episodes of suicidal depression. This turns into a quest for core values in a family history spanning three continents, in which one uprooting led to the next. Many readers will find a mirror in Roger Cohen's layered, ambitious, haunting book Joseph Lelyveld, author of Great Soul Roger Cohen has given us a profound and powerful book, gripping from start to finish. The story of his Jewish family's suffering and success, from Lithuania before the Shoah to South Africa, London and Tel Aviv today, features fierce battles against external demons (Hitler, Stalin, pervasive anti-Semitism) and the internal demons of depression and displacement. Wise and reflective, The Girl from Human Street is memoir at its finest Fritz Stern, author of Five Germanys I Have Known I am moved by this book. I find fascinating the fusion of the private, even intimate family story with the history of European Jews in the twentieth century, the marriage of a subtle memoir with an essay on Jewish identity, tradition and assimilation, various diasporas and Israel, Israelis and Palestinians, humanism vs. fanaticism Amos Oz, author of A Tale of Love and Darkness Roger Cohen has written an absorbing, haunting voyage around the Jewish twentieth century. A book full of loss and love, it charts the intense, universal need to belong - a need so great, it can lead to despair and even a kind of madness. It is more than the story of one family. It is the story of a need that makes us human Jonathan Freedland, author of Jacob's Gift In this honest and lucid book, the British-born Cohen tells how his Lithuanian Jewish ancestors came to South Africa ... With limpid prose, Cohen delivers a searching and profoundly moving memoir Kirkus Reviews In a lyrical, digressive tracking of mental illness in his far-flung family, New York Times columnist Cohen explores the tentacles of repressed memory in Jewish identity Publishers Weekly Impressive ... His often moving, beautifully written book may be a "story of the 20th century", but it also explores how Jewish identity might evolve in the 21st Sunday Times Roger Cohen is an eminent journalist and a wonderful storyteller ... The Girl from Human Street has important things to say, things that can perhaps only be said by a Jewish author. Cohen's book is brave, honourable and enlightened. It is also beautifully written **** Daily Telegraph I was unprepared to be as gripped and moved as I was by this exploration of his family's past ... His observations about what it was like to be a Jew in Britain are sharp The Times Beneath this brave memoir of a Jewish clan looms the memory of the Zagare massacre **** Sunday Telegraph Searing, passionate detail ... By tracing where his mother came from, Cohen, the Jewish runaway, speaks universally in this disarmingly raw narrative, and his lovely but haunted mother even more so - not least in her refusal to give up trying to love Observer

Roger Cohen is a columnist for the New York Times. As foreign editor, he oversaw Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage in the aftermath of 9/11. He worked as a foreign correspondent for many years, beginning at Reuters. He has won numerous accolades and was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award at the International Media Awards in 2012. Raised in South Africa and London, a naturalized American, he lives in London and New York. @NYTimesCohen