Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery is a non-fiction memoir, written by Canadian writer Helen Waldstein Wilkes, first published in December 2009 by Athabasca University Press. In the book, the author chronicles her discoveries after reading a box of letters she had never before seen. Her Jewish parents had fled Czechoslovakia in April 1939Ottosen, Erin, June 15, 2011, Letters from the Lost wins "Alberta Readers’ Choice Award", Open AU. Retrieved November 23, 2012 to seek haven in Canada. Once in place, they corresponded with family and friends, encouraging them to escape the mounting peril that Hitler had envisioned as the Final Solution. Wilkes would learn that shortly after her parents migration, the ability to flee had been curtailed; and that each letter, compounded the historical anguish the writers were forced to endure.Burns, Megan Moore, Letters from the Lost, Quill & Quire. Retrieved November 23, 2012

Awards and honours Letters from the Lost received the "Alberta Readers' Choice Award" in 2011,Edmonton Public Library, 2011 "Alberta Readers' Choice Award" . Retrieved November 23, 2012 for "the best fiction or narrative non-fiction book written by an Alberta author." The book also received the 2011 "Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction".Faculty of Arts, September 8, 2011, Helen Waldstein Wilkes wins 2011 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, Wilfrid Laurier University, Headlines (News Releases). Retrieved November 23, 2012

See also List of Edna Staebler Award recipients

Translations "Das Schlimmste aber war der Judenstern." Das Schicksal meiner Familie. Transl. Christina Goldt, Ingrid Hildebrand, Margarete Kollmar, Angelika Meirhofer, Ilse Windhoff. Osburg, Hamburg 2014 (German) Spanish: “Cartas de los Ausentes“. Transl. José Miguel Parra, Prologue Jacobo Pruschy. Editorial Confluencias. Spain 2018.

References

6. ://www.editorialconfluencias.com/producto/carta-de-los-ausentes/

External links Full text, free copy from the editor, Creative Commons License CBC Canada, Listen to Helen Waldstein Wilkes' interview with CBC Daybreak Alberta. Retrieved November 23, 2012