Raven Mother

In Raven Mother, Jane Messer weaves together her Jewish family's compelling and tragic story stretching back and forth between Berlin, Israel, Palestine, Melbourne and Sydney.

In a powerful work of memoir, history and biography, Jane Messer retraces the tragic and hopeful steps of her Jewish German grandmother, Bella. From pre-war Berlin to Tel Aviv to Melbourne, Messer follows Bella's journey and tries to understand her choices, including why she abandoned her son Michael in England before the war. Along the way, she speaks with historians in Germany, peace activists, scholars and refugees in Israel and Palestine, and, constantly, to her beloved father.

Shifting between the personal and the historical with lyrical precision, Raven Mother grapples with the grand scale of global events and the intimate struggles of family and memory.