''Dora Bruder'' is a biography, an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

and a detective novel by French writer Patrick Modiano about a Jewish teenage girl who went missing during the German occupation of Paris. It was first published in French on 2 April 1997 and published in English in December 1999. The book is also entitled ''The Search Warrant'' for the British edition of the translation.

Plot

The book starts when the author comes across a missing person ad in the Paris Soir newspaper on 31 December 1941 looking for Dora Bruder. She is a 15-year-old Jewish girl. Mondiano starts his investigations based on public records and conversations with Dora's family members. She was born in the 12th arrondissement and lives in

18th arrondissement of Paris The 18th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''dix-huitième''. The arrondissement, known as Butte-Montmartr ...

. Her parents sent her to a catholic school in December 1941 from which she ran away. She was later found in April 1942 but her father, a Jew of Austrian background, had been arrested and sent to the internment camp of

Drancy Drancy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in northern France. It is located 10.8 km (6.7 mi) from the center of Paris. History Toponymy The name Drancy comes from Medieval Lati ...

where she will also end up. Dora and her father will eventually be deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

on 18 September 1942.

Themes

''Dora Bruder'' is a typical example of the themes found across Modiano's work such as memory, loss, recovery, time. The German occupation of Paris and the status of the Jews in Paris during this time is also a central theme of Modiano's work since his first novel. Across the story, Mondiano adds his personal experiences with his father through Dora's interactions with her family, his life in the same neighbourhood or his escape from school when he was 14.

References

{{Authority control 1997 French novels Novels set in Paris Novels set during World War II Novels set in the 1940s French historical novels Novels by Patrick Modiano French autobiographical novels