A vividly illustrated family memoir told in the voices of father and daughter, The Art of Being a Stranger grapples with the challenges of displacement and historical memory across generations in the wake of the Holocaust. Karen Bermann grew up in the mad orbit of her father, Fritz, the rebellious child of a Viennese Orthodox Jewish family who fled Europe alone as an adolescent in the late 1930s. An irreverent, comic, rageful man with three names, who spoke three languages, lived on three continents, and always kept his papers in order, Fritz’s life was shaped by survival. In this memoir, told in alternating voices in brief, lyrical episodes, Bermann explores not only the mystery of her father but also the inheritances he passed on: intergenerational trauma, fragile familial bonds, and a fraught sense of belonging. The Art of Being a Stranger is a darkly funny narrative told in poetry, prose, and mixed-media drawings. While her father taught her how to save herself, Bermann realized early on that what she truly needed was to be saved from him. Set against the backdrop of 1960s and 1970s New York City, The Art of Being a Stranger is a poignant comic-drama that offers an intimate, layered exploration of parents and children in the shadow of history.

— Praise —

“Beautiful and unsentimental, Karen Bermann’s The Art of Being a Stranger reminds me of the timeless truth articulated by Franz Kafka: “If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”

—Robert Jan Van Pelt, Professor of Architecture, University of Waterloo

“There are eight million stories in the Naked City, and Karen Bermann’s Vienna to Palestine to Queens tale is a great one – full of vivid details about New York City infrastructure and the pathos of refugee life.”

—J. Hoberman, author of Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds