The Search Warrant: Dora Bruder - Tapa blanda

"Modiano’s crowning as the Nobel Prize-winner for Literature aptly sees its republication. And so it should" (Arifa Akbar Independent)

"The most poignant, the strongest of all Patrick Modiano’s works. From a small ad found in a Paris newspaper in 1941, the writer embarks on the hunt for a young Jewish girl Dora Bruder, a runaway who has disappeared into the dark night of the Occupation. Through this investigation, Modiano looks for Dora, but for his own father as well, also hiding in the Paris of that time. Absolutely magnificent." (Le Monde)

"An exceptional book" (JORGE SEMPRUN)

"This book is both harrowing and admirable...quite simply shattering" (RENAUD MATIGNON, Figaro)

"Missing a young girl, Dora Bruder, 15, height 1.55m, oval-shaped face, grey-brown eyes, grey sports jacket, maroon pullover, navy blue skirt and hat, brown gym shoes. All information to M. and Mme Bruder, 41 Boulevard Ornano, Paris."
The author chanced upon this notice in a December 1941 issue of Paris Soir. The girl has vanished from the convent school which had taken her in during the Occupation. She had apparently run away on a bitterly cold night at a time of especially violent German reprisals.