A Mother's Promise: My true story of surviving Auschwitz and the horrors of the Holocaust, the Sunday Times bestseller

by Kate Thompson, Renee Salt

304 pages, Hardcover

Published February 7, 2025

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Kate Thompson is an award-winning writer for children and adults.She has lived in Ireland, where many of her books are set, since 1981. She is the youngest child of the social historians and peace activists E. P. Thompson and Dorothy Towers. She worked with horses and travelled in India before settling in the west of Ireland with her partner Conor. They have two daughters, Cliodhna and Dearbhla. She is an accomplished fiddler with an interest in Irish traditional music, reflected in The New Policeman.

While Kate Thompson's children's fiction is primarily fantasy, several of her books also deal with the consequences of genetic engineering.

She has won the Bisto Children's Book of the Year Award four times, for The Beguilers, The Alchemist's Apprentice, Annan Water and The New Policeman. The New Policeman was also awarded the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Whitbread Children's Book Award and the Dublin Airport Authority Children's Book of the Year Award for 2005.

Reviews

[Manal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so incredibly sad but also impossible to put down. Truly how Renee even survived her 6.5yrs of absolute horror & went on to live such a wonderful family life is incredible. Her story will stay in my mind forever.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Renee Salt's testimony is incredibly moving. Her memories of pre-war Jewish life in her hometown highlight all that was lost and destroyed. As well as Renee's first person narrative of her wartime experiences there is accompanying commentary from the writer which helps to contextualise events. I particularly enjoyed learning of Renee's post war life.