Annette Berkovits Inspired by Mother in 'The Corset Maker'

Author of two acclaimed memoirs, Annette Libeskind Berkovits, joins us to discuss her debut novel, The Corset Maker. The story follows the life of 12-year old Rifka Berg and tells of her extraordinary journey beginning in pre-World War II Poland, then to Palestine, through the Spanish Civil War, and finally to post-war Paris, all the while facing antisemitism and violence. The book is loosely based on the life of Berkovits’ mother, Dora Libeskind. She explained, “My mother was a fascinating woman to me all my life. She had always wanted to be independent and she came from a Orthodox-Jewish home in pre-WWII Warsaw, Poland, and the role of women at the time was really to tend the home fires and to raise children, but my mother wanted more than that so quite incredibly at the age of 17, she opened her own corset shop. She had been learning to sew from her mother since she was a little girl, so she knew how to design…and she had really the audacity to recruit her best friend and to open a store in the most elegant street in Warsaw…and here you have this young girl opening her own business and she was very successful and she continued to be successful later on in life and very different circumstances, but I always wanted to know more about her…”

Berkovits also delved into the backstory of her distinctive book cover, which was designed by her brother, world-renowned architect, Daniel Libeskind. “He did the cover and he did it in his, I would say, typical enigmatic style. He’s very avant garde in his buildings and he’s avant garde in his cover, so readers might not immediately understand the symbolism of the cover, but once they read it, they certainly will.” She also elaborated on the reasoning behind the swastika on the cover, which, she clarified, is not the same swastika that Hitler decreed. Hers differs in that it is a white swastika, set on a black circle with a gray background, as opposed to Hitler’s black swastika, on a white circle with a red background. Its placement on the cover reflects the themes of antisemitism and fascism that run throughout her book. In addition, “…Many people don’t know that the swastika is a centuries old symbol and that it used to symbolize good and it has been perverted by the Nazis. So that’s the reason the swastika on this cover has to be understood within the entire context of the book, not just judging it by the cover. ”

The Corset Maker also includes an epilogue and prologue, which not only bookends the story but also contains rich content and important, modern issues. “I ask your listeners if they read the Corset Maker, don’t skip the prologue because it really will change your understanding of what I’m trying to say.”