Synopsis
Sometimes when you are looking for the dead, you find the living.
When Irène joins the International Tracing Service, she becomes consumed by a singular obsession: returning the belongings confiscated from concentration camp prisoners to their families.
A faded cloth doll. A medallion. An embroidered handkerchief. Each object holds a story - and behind each one, a life waiting to be pieced back together.
As Irène traces the owners through fragments of evidence, she reconstructs their final days and discovers that even in the darkest chapter of history, humanity endured.
The Bureau of Unknown Fates is a devastating and beautiful novel about history, memory and survival as one woman helps connect families across generations to the ones they have lost.
Winner of the 2023 Grand Prix RTL-Lire Fiction Award
When Irène joins the International Tracing Service, she becomes consumed by a singular obsession: returning the belongings confiscated from concentration camp prisoners to their families.
A faded cloth doll. A medallion. An embroidered handkerchief. Each object holds a story - and behind each one, a life waiting to be pieced back together.
As Irène traces the owners through fragments of evidence, she reconstructs their final days and discovers that even in the darkest chapter of history, humanity endured.
The Bureau of Unknown Fates is a devastating and beautiful novel about history, memory and survival as one woman helps connect families across generations to the ones they have lost.
Winner of the 2023 Grand Prix RTL-Lire Fiction Award
Details
16 July 2026
9781786583703Imprint: Manilla Press
Reviews
A gripping, poetic and historically accurate description of one of the principal institutions of Holocaust research, the International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen. Gaëlle Nohant gave me access to the archives, a place full of secrets, withheld for decades. I couldn't stop reading this seemingly simple but vital story of returning objects to their rightful place. I was transported by the violence, grief, trauma, generational secrets, and ultimately the power of memory and restitution.
This is an important book, intertwining history with a capital H and the personal quest of a determined archivist. Because it engages with themes that have long preoccupied me - the traces of the past, the memories held in objects and places, the indelible scars of history -Gaëlle Nohant's novel touched me profoundly...an unforgettable read.
A journey toward knowledge and closure that reads like a gripping mystery stirring the heart as well as the intellect. At once, a spellbinding novel and a moral triumph.
The Bureau of Unknown Fates is a compelling, evocative, and highly original novel. With haunting, graceful prose, Gaëlle Nohant reveals the horrors of World War II through the deeply personal lens of Irène, who works for The International Tracing Service to return confiscated objects recovered from liberated camps to the families of their owners. Working tirelessly to uncover the histories behind the humblest items-a handkerchief, a locket, a battered puppet-Irène becomes a catalyst of healing for the descendants of those lost during the war. While The Bureau of Unknown Fates does not shy away from the heart-rending darkness of the Holocaust it also shows us humanity at its best; the resolution of each case brought me to tears, as did Irène's personal journey. Most important, Nohant reminds us of the duty to remember, for in uncovering the stories of those we've lost, we honor them and make peace with the past. This is a meticulously researched novel with many layers that will stay with readers long after the final page. A must read!
