Pascale Hugues is a French writer and journalist who has reported for the French newspapers Liberation and Le Point from Berlin for over twenty-five years. She also writes in numerous German publications and is a columnist for the daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.
Hugues brings the tumultuous twentieth century to vivid, messy life through the memories of the men and women who lived in the community. It's a testament to the human costs of catastrophe and the resilience of ordinary people in the face of unthinkable struggle. Bridey Heing, Times Literary Supplement More than a one-place study, this engaging memoir reaches beyond the blinds of a quiet Berlin street to provide a window into 20th century German and world history via the prism of human experience. Family Tree Magazine This is a terrific book. Hugues writes very well and she has a real eye for the killer vignette. Her gallery of characters is engrossing and, in one or two cases, unforgettable. Hannah's Dress will find an appreciative audience among all those interested in the Holocaust and twentieth-century German history generally. Brendan Simms, University of Cambridge This unusual memoir uses the author's personal experience living in one street in Berlin as a window into the German past. She reaches out to elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors and refugees around the world who once lived on her street, and in her sophisticated narrative she peels back the layers hiding individual experiences so elusive to many professional historians. Deborah Hertz, University of California at San Diego Hannah's Dress is a book that is both tender and bittersweet, shocking and full of surprises. It is a unique, moving and very well-written narrative that has justly been awarded the Simone Veil Prize. Elle Pascale Hugues' account of her street and its inhabitants is a little wonder of a book. Neue Zurcher Zeitung