Astrid Goldsmith talks to Louisa Treger

Animator and writer Astrid Goldsmith talks about her graphic memoir, The Crystal Vase, based on the true story of her grandmother, Gisela, a cousin of Anne Frank who escaped the Nazis and found refuge in Zimbabwe.

Goldsmith recounts in graphic form how she and her father set off on a road trip across Europe after the death of her German-Jewish grandmother. In her grandmother’s flat in Freiburg they found several lifetimes worth of belongings and uncovered long-buried secrets and tales of survival in Nazi Germany and colonial Africa.

‘A fascinating investigation into generational trauma, a poetic riff on the nature of truth, a beautifully observed poem about how love gets passed down . . . and, above all, just incredibly funny. This is a new masterpiece of comics’ Stephen Collins, author of The Gigantic Beard that was Evil

Goldsmith’s graphic short story A Funeral in Freiburg won the Observer/Jonathan Cape prize. She writes for animated television series and is a visiting lecturer at several universities. Here she talks to novelist Louisa Treger, author of Mad Woman, The Lodger, The Dragon Lady and The Paris Muse.

Part of the festival’s programme of Jewish and Hebrew literature and culture.