The Box With the Sunflower Clasp – Book Q and A Evening.

A Q and A session organised by Topping Books  in Ely.

Rachel Meller was never close to her aunt Lisbeth, a cool, unemotional woman with a drawling Viennese-Californian accent, a cigarette always in her hand. But when Lisbeth died, she left Rachel an intricately carved Chinese box with a sunflower clasp. Inside the box were photographs, letters and documents that led Rachel to uncover a story she had never known: that of a passionate Jewish teenager growing up in elegant Vienna, who is caught up by war, and forced to flee to Shanghai.

Set against a backdrop of the war in the Far East, The Box with the Sunflower Clasp is a sweeping family memoir that reveals the hidden history of the Jewish refugees saved by Shanghai. Rachel Meller writes with elegance and insight as she examines what it means to survive, and what the legacy of displacement and war might mean for the generation that comes afterwards.

Tickets – £8.00 or £25.00 which includes a copy of the book.  Doors open  at 7.00 pm.

For info go to https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/ely/rachel-meller-2023/