HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Oct 28, 2023 5:00 pm
Location
Takoma
235 Carroll St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20012
Oct 28, 2023 5:00 pm
Takoma
‘In almost every sentence, van Os compels admiration with his elegant prose, demonstrating his erudition but never showing off or taking away from the gravity of the subject matter … Hiding in Plain Sight is more than a survival narrative. It is a history of Eastern European mentality.’ - DE VOLKSKRANT
Catholics believed she was one of them. A devoted Nazi family took her in. She fell in love with a German engineer who built aeroplanes for the Luftwaffe. But no one knew that Mala Rivka Kizel had been born into a large Orthodox Jewish family. She survived World War II using her charm, intelligence, blonde hair, and blue eyes to assume different identities.
Journalist Pieter van Os retraces Mala’s footsteps through Europe to uncover her extraordinary journey and the stories of those who helped her. This poignant, rich book is an engrossing meditation on what drives us to fear the Other, and what in turn might allow us to feel compassion for them.
Pieter van Os, sponsored by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, is joining us on the Busboys stage to share Mala Rivka Kizel’s story and his work investigating it. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and van Os will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 5:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct up, dates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Pieter van Os writes for NRC Handelsblad and De Groene Amsterdammer. His published works include the books The Netherlands in Focus, and We Understand Each Other Perfectly, about his years as a parliamentary journalist. After having lived in Warsaw for four years, he now resides in Amsterdam. In 2020, he won the Libris History Prize and the Brusse Prize for best Dutch-language journalistic book of the year with Hiding in Plain Sight.
