Affinity Konar was raised in California. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University.
"Konar describes [these horrors] beautifully, lyrically, in the
language of a fable...readers who allow themselves to fall under
the spell of Konar's exceptionally sensitive writing may well find
the book unforgettable."--Ruth Franklin, New York Times Book Review
"Konar makes the emotional lives of her two spirited narrators
piercingly real... doubts are steamrolled by Konar's ability to
powerfully convey the experiences of her heroines: their
resourcefulness and will to survive; their resilience and faith in
a future even in the face of extermination; and Pearl's remarkable
determination to embrace forgiveness.... What is most haunting
about the novel is Konar's ability to depict the hell that was
Auschwitz, while at the same time capturing the resilience of many
prisoners, their ability to hang on to hope and kindness in the
fact of the most awful suffering--to remain, in Elie Wiesel's
words, humane 'in an inhumane universe.'"--Michiko Kakutani, New
York Times "Riveting."--Pamela Paul, New York Times Book Review
"Mischling is a paradox. It's a beautiful novel about the most
odious of crimes, it's a deeply-researched act of remembrance that
somehow carries the lightness of a fairy tale, and it's a
coming-of-age story about children who aren't allowed to come of
age. If your soul can survive the journey, you'll be rewarded by
one of the most harrowing, powerful, and imaginative books of the
year."--Anthony Doerr, author of New York Times bestseller All The
Light We Cannot See
"Mischling is a phenomenal book--harrowing and heartbreaking,
intimate and epic--and Affinity Konar is a wise and compassionate
writer with talent in spades. An achingly beautiful novel that will
stay with me for a long, long time."
--Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans
"Mischling transported me to another world. It's a world that's
part of our history, of course, and in a book that's so much about
illusion, the true sleight of hand is that Affinity Konar allows us
to see it anew. Brace yourself for a novel unlike any you've ever
read."
--Cristina Henriquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans
"A spare, stunning debut that's a must-read."
--Barnes & Noble
"A triumphant first novel.... In what could be the bleakest of
worlds, Mischling gives us moments of transcendent hope and even
beauty."
--O, the Oprah Magazine
"A truly original story of the horrors of the Holocaust and life
after."
--Marie Claire
"Affinity Konar is an astonishing and fearless writer, whose great
gift to us is this book. With incantatory magic, she marches
through the most nightmarish of landscapes, swinging her
light."
--Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia
"Affinity Konar's Mischling is a piercing novel written with
chin-up virtuosity. The prose is dazzling, and the story of these
twins is moving and searing, and as powerful as the best mythic
stories of the masters of old."--Chigozie Obioma, author of The
Fishermen
"Affinity Konar's MISCHLING is a tale of courage, courageously told
- spare and beautiful, riveting and heartrending. Half of me wanted
to linger over every page, the other half insisted I race ahead.
It's a case of extraordinary storytelling from first page to
transcendent last."--David Wroblewski, author of the New York Times
bestseller The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
"Astonishing. Complicated. Heartbreaking. Powerful. Devastating.
Sublime.... A book for once deserving of those all too overwrought,
overused descriptors."
--Elle
"Drawn from the abundant documentation of the Holocaust, Konar's
unbearable but transcendent debut novel imagines the ordeal of
Jewish twins at the hands of the jovial sociopath they are asked to
call "Uncle Doctor." In its blend of realism and fantasy, cruelty
and beauty, the book itself affirms the value of mischling....
Konar's novel is filled with exquisitely crafted
phrases...nevertheless, the aesthetic achievement of Mischling
cannot redeem the world after Auschwitz. It merely illuminates it,
woefully, brilliantly."
--Dallas Morning News
"Fiction of rare poignancy--and astonishing hope.... An
unforgettable sojourn of the spirit."
--Booklist, starred review
"Full of rich historical detail, Mischling is a captivating story
of survival in the worst circumstances imaginable.... Despite these
atrocities, there is a mystical wonder present in the story--the
world might be in blames, but the universe provides... It is hard
to describe the alchemy that Konar performs to make this story so
uplifting.
--Bookbrowse
"Konar has woven a masterful and poignant account of a pair of twin
sisters who cannot be separated, even by the cruelest hand of fate.
Her prose is mystical and delicately poetic, and she uses her
manifold gifts to tell a deeply engaging story of fortitude and
triumph. Bravo."--Lucette Lagnado, author of Children of the Flames
and The Man in the Sharkskin Suit, winner of the Sami Rohr Prize
for Jewish Literature
"Konar makes every sentence count; it's to her credit that the
girls never come across as simply victims: they're flawed,
memorable characters trying to stay alive. This is a brutally
beautiful book."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Konar's Mischling is a luminous tale of hope in the shadow of the
Holocaust."
--Vanity Fair
"Konar's evocative storytelling, fierce characters and haunting
prose make Mischling equally hard to put down."
--USA Today
"Reading Mischling reminds me of looking at the images that came
back from the Hubble space telescope: it's the night sky we think
we know so well, and it's something we've never seen before.
Affinity Konar's work is beautiful and essential."--Rivka Galchen,
author of Atmospheric Disturbances
"The sheer beauty of the language in Mischling is one of the things
that makes the book unlike most other Holocaust novels."
--Kirkus
"There isn't a page in this novel that isn't also shining with hope
and love, and that's what makes this beautiful book worth the
read."
--Book Riot
"This novel, haunted by history and the unknowable power of family,
is made bearable--indeed, necessary--by the spectacle of a literary
imagination that observes no limits. Konar has produced a
tremendously unsettled work of art."
--Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet
"Though Konar's work is fiction, her research into historical
figures and accounts helped form the key characters and episodes
within it. Her writing bears a pointed edge, but also has a
striking cadence that is often beautiful and poetic."
--Bookpage
"Unflinching.... Konar constructs a sinuous plot from the chaos of
the postwar landscape... It is certainly miraculous, and moving,
that any of these victims survived, and Konar is wise to keep her
focus not on the incomprehensibly sadistic Mengele in his shiny
black boots, but on the children themselves."
--Washington Post
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