A life in pieces

Eskin and his mother (nee Wilbur), American Jews, were engaged in restoring the history of the Wilkomirski family from Riga, who emigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century and Americanized the family name to Wilbur. In the course of their search they stumbled upon Binjamin Wilkomirski's book "Fragments, " and established contact with him, believing that he was a relative. Years of tracing the family history convinced Eskin that Bruno Doesseker, aka Binjamin Wilkomirski, was an impostor - neither a relative, nor a child survivor of the Holocaust - and that his work was fiction, albeit well written. Describes how Doesseker was received as the author of a Holocaust memoir and how he was exposed as a fake. Reflects on the reliability of survivors' accounts as a source for historical writing, the psychological trauma of child survivors, and the memory of the Holocaust. Reports on the fate of members of the Wilkomirski family of Riga, many of whom were Holocaust victims. 245 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm