HMMSA Reads: "How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty" with author Bonny Reichert

Hunger, the prover­bial wolf at the door, is a uni­ver­sal expe­ri­ence. Eat­ing may keep the beast at bay but it doesn’t tame it; calo­ries alone can nour­ish the body, but not the mind and soul. For many with PTSD, includ­ing Holo­caust sur­vivors, food can be an incom­plete escape into a more sta­ble life. In How to Share an Egg—a nar­ra­tive that inter­weaves the author’s own sto­ry with that of her Holo­caust-sur­vivor father, Saul — Bon­ny Reichert explores how iden­ti­ty and trau­ma can be pre­served and trans­mut­ed across gen­er­a­tions. Saul’s mem­o­ries of suf­fer­ing and sus­te­nance feed Reichert’s hunger for under­stand­ing, tikkun (repair), and healing.

This book begins in 1945 with Saul on the brink of star­va­tion after his recent lib­er­a­tion from the Flossen­bürg con­cen­tra­tion camp (pre­ced­ed by impris­on­ment in the Lodz Ghet­to, Auschwitz-Birke­nau, and Sach­sen­hausen). This moment anchors the inter­gen­er­a­tional trau­ma that Bon­ny explores through­out this book. Although her child­hood in Edmon­ton, Cana­da could be described as genial, that would deny the pro­found dark­ness that she strug­gles with.

Author Bonny Reichert will join us via zoom.

Sponsored by the Barshop JCC and Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio

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