Inkflower by Suzy Zail

Diagnosed with motor neurone disease and given six months to live, Lisa’s father Emil begins to share his childhood story with his family. The atrocities he endured and overcame during the Holocaust make for torrid reading, and are confronting for his children who were unaware of his background. However he continues with weekly instalments, determined that history will not be forgotten, and hoping that evils will not be repeated.

The chapters alternate between Then and Now; Emil’s survival leading up to his migration to Australia, and 16 year-old Lisa’s family and school life in 1982 suburban Melbourne.

The novel is based on Zail’s own father’s desire to tell the story of his escape from WW2 Nazi Europe, and his decline and eventual death from MND. This was recorded by Zail in her 2006 book, The Tattooed Flower; a memoir. In Inkflower his story is fleshed out by the contemporary narrator, Lisa, who has kept both her father’s illness and her Jewish background a secret from her best friends and boyfriend.

Young readers may have come across general descriptions of the Jews’ transportation by cattle trucks, existence in concentration camps, the forced death marches and associated hunger, beatings and killings, but recounting them from an individual young person’s perspective give them extra weight. If this is a reader’s first introduction to the Holocaust, Inkflower will be a harrowing read.

Both strands of the novel stress the importance of family, friendship and supportive relationships. They also explore how we construct our own identity and how aspects such as names and religion define us. Lisa and her father were examples of how we often tell ‘lies by omission’, and adjust our perceptions of ourselves as we learn more about our family’s history and background.

The Author’s Note on how the book came about, and Further Resources for both the Holocaust and MND are valuable additions.

Themes: Friendship, Family, Identity, Holocaust, Motor Neurone Disease.

Margaret Crohn