Raven Mother with Jane Messer

Join accomplished author Jane Messer for her memoir, Raven Mother: War, family and inheritance.

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.

Books will be available for purchase and signing on the day.

$5.00 + booking fee

Afternoon tea on arrival.

Bookings required.

Jane Messer is the accomplished writer of novels, short stories and essays, is a regular contributor to The Conversation, and is a former Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Macquarie University. She is the founder and director of StorySALOON, a live show and podcast dedicated to Australian short stories.

As the daughter of a refugee, she finds herself compelled to write about fractured lives, marginal people and migration.

Enquiries: 8495 5028 or libraryprograms@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au