This com­pelling, can­did mem­oir by Mindy Weisel, an inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed artist and author, traces her search for beau­ty in her life. Weisel was born at Bergen-Belsen’s Dis­placed Per­son­’s Camp to par­ents who sur­vived Auschwitz. This is not her par­ents’ sto­ry, rather, it is a coura­geous por­trait of her strug­gle to under­stand the black hole she was born into.

Her suc­cess­ful jour­ney in becom­ing an artist, with an unshake­able will to live with beau­ty, is inspir­ing. Her writ­ing, art, poet­ry and jour­nals offer mov­ing insights into her life and work, espe­cial­ly, Weisel’s deep con­vic­tion that beau­ty and love can over­come tragedy.

After address­es her belief in the ​“oblig­a­tion” she feels in cre­at­ing an anti­dote to the pain and suf­fer­ing she wit­nessed as a sur­vivor’s daughter.

Each chap­ter of After is accom­pa­nied by paint­ings relat­ing to dif­fer­ent peri­ods of Weisel’s life – a life filled with accom­plish­ment, mean­ing, love and ful­fill­ment – per­son­al­ly and professionally.