Raven Mother

War, family and inheritance: a memoir

By: Jane Messer

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Paperback | 1 March 2026

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Paperback

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21.0 x 13.5

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In Raven Mother, Jane Messer weaves together her Jewish family's compelling and tragic story stretching back and forth between Berlin, Israel, Palestine, Melbourne and Sydney.

Messer retraces the steps of her Jewish grandmother Bella, as she tries to understand her life in pre-war Berlin and Mandate Palestine, her suicide in post-war Melbourne (how Bella didn't survive the surviving), and why her father was abandoned in England before the war. In this powerful, beautifully written and insightful book, Messer spends time in Berlin, Israel and Palestine and grapples with the effects of nationalism, both historical and contemporary. Along the way she speaks with historians, activists, refugees, and scholars, and constantly, to her beloved father.

Raven Mother is a powerful work of memoir and history, essential to understanding the impacts of the Holocaust and Jewish identity in the postWorld War II era. Blending the personal and the historical with lyrical precision, Jane Messer sweeps from the grand scale of global events to the intimate struggles of family and memory.

‘A beautifully etched excursion through muddied layers of history and memories of place, Raven Mother is an unexpected homage to the fault lines of family.’ – Andrea Durbach

About the Author

Jane Messer is the accomplished writer of novels, short stories and essays, is a regular contributor to The Conversation, and is a former Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Macquarie University. She is the founder and director of StorySALOON, a live show and podcast dedicated to Australian short stories.

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