The novel describes his search to reconstruct the story behind this message for years. It leads him to the history of a Jewish and peculiar girl who ran away from the strict, catholic boarding school for girls \u2018Saint-Coeur-de-Marie\u2019. How she lived and why she ran away remains speculative.<\/p>\n
Her story, which conjures the sense of emptiness and darkness, has remained in my memory.\u00a0As Modiano I visited some places from Dora\u2019s past. The building on \u201941 Boulevard Ornano\u2019 in the 18th<\/sup> arrondissement still contains small one- and two-bedroom flats. Currently, it is mainly inhabited by (North-) African immigrants and native Parisians. Even the hotel where the Bruders possibly lived earlier \u201932 Rue Polonceau\u2019, is still there. However, the windows have been bricked shut and a sign with the demolition permit adorns its fa\u00e7ade.\u00a0The big lot which once housed the boarding school for girls, on the corner of rue de Picpus and rue de la Gare-de Reuilly, is now home to flats surrounded by greenery.<\/p>\n I hoped to find some kind of tangible memory on the \u2018Wall of Names\u2019 of the \u2018M\u00e9morial de la Shoah\u2019 in the Marais which had been erected in 2005. The names and dates of birth of 76.000 deported French Jews are engraved upon it. Under \u20191942\u2032 I find the names of Dora and her father, under \u20191943\u2032 that of her mother. Dora\u2019s year of birth is missing… Even here, the unknown, but well-known girl… keeps hold of a secret.<\/p>\n In 1997 the novel ‘Dora Bruder’ by French author Patrick Modiano was released. The story is set in Paris and starts with a message, which Modiano read in a newspaper of December 1941. And it had grabbed hold of him. … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/parisimpressions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Muur-der-namen.jpg\" "\\"Muur-der-namen\\"")
<\/a>Detail ‘Wall of Names’ M\u00e9morial de la Shoah, Paris<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"