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Karina Urbach is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of London. She received her doctorate from the University of Cambridge and has taken part in several BBC, PBS and ZDF documentaries. Her 2017 book Go-Betweens for Hitler (OUP) triggered a debate in the UK about the Royal family's links to Nazi Germany. Her biography of Queen Victoria was published with great acclaim in Germany. For her historical novel Cambridge 5 (written under the pseudonym Hannah Coler) she was shortlisted for three literary prizes and won the Crime Cologne Award in 2018. She now lives in Cambridge, UK.
A gripping piece of 20th-century family history but also something much more original: a rare insight into the Aryanisation of Jewish-authored books during the Nazi regime. Urbach has meticulously pieced together everything she could find about how and why Alice's publishers were able to deny her authorship for more than 80 years . . . It's impossible to read this moving and clear-eyed book without admiring Alice's fiercely optimistic spirit -- Bee Wilson * Financial Times * Unputdownable . . . I have read all Urbach's historical books with high admiration, but none of them can match this story, for its sheer oddity . . . By telling the story of the brazen theft of a cookbook, and the fate of its title long after the war, Urbach has also retold the tragic Holocaust story in quite unforgettable lines. -- A.N. Wilson Unlike Nazi art theft, about which there are many excellent books, there has been surprisingly little research into the Nazi theft of Jewish authorship . . . As this engaging memoir, smoothly translated by Jamie Bulloch, makes clear, the theft of the cookbook remained for Alice's entire life the symbol of everything that had been stolen from her. -- Caroline Moorehead * TLS * What the historian has brought to light is perfect film material - persecution, murder, fraud, imprisonment, escape, rescue, friendship, secret service activities, rise, fall and a new beginning . . . And Urbach's writing is exciting, cinematic. -- Susanne Kippenberger * Tagespiegel * Karina Urbach not only reconstructs individual fates from family correspondence and tape interviews from her grandmother's estate, she also draws on a myriad of archives. [...] The fact that she - a traditional historian who is aware of the dangers of a lack of emotional distance - manages this without sentimentality is an achievement in itself. The facts are moving enough. -- Walter Schubler * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung * A remarkable book . . . The author describes the slow expropriation of Alice Urbach - a fate she shared with many Jewish authors. -- Martin Doerry * Spiegel * Exciting, moving, informative - this family memoir belongs on the bestseller list. Simply terrific! -- Mike Altwicker * WDR * Exciting, touching and insightful: Karina Urbach has written a great book about a strong woman who could not be shaken by anything and who turned her little happiness into happiness for others -- Heribert Prantl * Sueddeutsche Zeitung * The extraordinary story of a phenomenal woman with a cookery school in pre-war Vienna . . . Thanks to [Urbach's] research, recognition and copyright was restored to Alice's descendants in 2021. * Tablet * This fascinating book shines a spotlight on this lesser-known aspect of Nazi looting. -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * The Times * A fascinating family history [about] a little-known strand of Nazi persecution. -- Matthew Reisz * Spectator *
