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Cover of Ellis Island by Georges Perec

Ellis Island

Georges Perec, Monica de la Torre

  • 123 pages · about 2 hours
  • First published 1980
  • 10 editions
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1 About this book

The French novelist Georges Perec, whose Life: A User's Manual has been called a landmark of contemporary literature, has continually captured the American imagination, most recently with the publication of A Void, a novel written without the letter e. Ellis Island holds us in thrall once again. With poetic grace, insistent questioning, and a stunning carousel of images, Perec and filmmaker Robert Bober open our eyes to the intriguing blend of permanence and transience that is Ellis Island.

In lyrical prose, they explore their personal relationships to the themes of diaspora and identity, then interview men and women who, as children, arrived at Ellis Island full of hope and dreams about their new lives in America. Ellis Island offers a whole new presentation of the immigrant experience.

Good for readers who want: history, a true life story, and a short read.

  • Emigration and immigration
  • History
  • Biography
  • Immigrants
  • Immigrants, united states
  • Social science
  • Fairy tales
  • Folklore

2 About Georges Perec

1936–1982

Georges Perec (French:; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holocaust. Many of his works deal with absence, loss, and identity, often through word play.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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