The horror of the Holocaust has been the topic of many thousands of books; the scale of the savagery wrought by a sophisticated Western society is something that people struggle to understand. Many European Jewish people were able to find refuge in Australia and, over the years, they and their descendants have tried to understand the Holocaust by writing about it. These works have often been inspiring and profound.

Journalist Rachelle Unreich’s mother, Mira, survived four concentration camps, including Auschwitz. Despite her experience and the loss of most of her family, Mira remained positive and optimistic, happy with the life she made for herself after the war, first in France and then in Melbourne.

Mira’s diagnosis of cancer in her late 80s provided the impetus for Rachelle to try and understand her mother better, and she began recording her life. She discovered that her mother was more remarkable than she had realised, and that her mother’s life had been profoundly impacted by a strange series of coincidences.

A few weeks ago, Rachelle invited a small group of booksellers to her mother’s home to meet her family and experience the environment that Mira inhabited. After Mira’s death, the family kept the home as it was, complete with Mira’s furnishings and Carnaby Street wallpaper. It was there that we gathered and were plied with a bounteous middle-European hospitality, as Rachelle told us about the wonder of Mira. We were all drawn in to Mira’s world, and captivated when the cantor from Mira’s synagogue sang Mira’s favourite hymns to us. Rachelle’s book, A Brilliant Life, will be published in November by Hachette.

Leah Kaminsky is a respected GP and the author of five books. Her fifth, Doll’s Eye, will be published at the end of August by Penguin, and will be launched at Readings St Kilda on 31 August. It tells the story of two refugees from Europe whose lives intersect in remote Australia: Anna Winter, a young German woman, who escaped from Berlin in 1933 after her father fell foul of the Nazis; and Yiddish poet Alter Mayseh, who escapes from Europe to Australia in 1938. Anna ends up working in a remote pub on the railway line to Darwin, and meets Alter when his train is delayed by the wet season. Anna is reserved and quiet, Alter flamboyant and garrulous; both have had their lives profoundly changed by the events in Germany.

People come and go (and come back!) at Readings, but we’ll be sad to see the retirement of our classical music specialist, Phil Richards, from our Carlton shop after 20 years. Phil came to Readings from the Virgin Megastore in Bourke Street (how many remember that?!). He had big shoes to fill, succeeding the indomitable Ruth Gould, but his expertise and knowledge gained him many followers. Phil is renowned for his passion for golf (he’s the only person I know that has made a hole in one) and when I asked him if he was going to miss work, he told me that he realised from the start that he really didn’t like work, but he accepted that it was a necessity; golf is a much-preferred occupation. However, he did concede that he would miss the people: his colleagues and customers.

The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary in October this year. The festival was conceived by Ubud resident Janet De Neefe, who wanted to do something positive for Bali in the wake of the terrible bombings in Kuta on 12 October 2002.

My colleague Christine Gordon has organised a very special Readings tour of the festival: those who join the tour will stay at a beautiful hotel recommended by Janet, receive special invitations to the opening ceremony, attend exclusive events at Janet’s restaurants, and spend time with Christine and me. The tour is something I’m really looking forward to.

Pencil in plans for January and early February as well; we’ve been working with Marieke Brugman on a tour to the Jaipur Literature Festival. More details to follow.