{"title":"Mark Raphael Baker","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the insightful and deeply personal works of Mark Raphael Baker, a celebrated author in the realm of \u003cem\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Memoir\u003c\/em\u003e. Known for his profound ability to weave historical analysis with personal narrative, Baker's books offer a window into both individual and collective memories. His writing often reflects on themes of identity, history, and the enduring impact of past events on the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Fiftieth Gate\u003c\/em\u003e is a compelling journey that traverses the emotional landscapes of Holocaust survivors. Through meticulous research and intimate storytelling, Baker explores the intricate dance between history and memory. It's a profound exploration of how the past shapes our understanding of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThirty Days\u003c\/em\u003e, Baker presents a moving meditation on grief, spirituality, and the search for meaning. This memoir delves into his experiences coping with loss and navigating the complexities of faith, offering readers a chance to reflect on their own spiritual journeys.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeason of Death\u003c\/em\u003e continues Baker's exploration into themes of memory and identity, drawing readers into an immersive narrative that examines our connections with the past. Through a deeply personal lens, Baker invites readers to contemplate the narratives that define our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMark Raphael Baker's books are not just stories to read; they are experiences to be lived. His work encourages readers to consider the power of memory and history in shaping identities and communities.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-fiftieth-gate-by-mark-raphael-baker-9781925498615","title":"The Fiftieth Gate","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat right did I possess, as a child of survivors, to recreate an account of the Holocaust as if I was there? In writing \u003cem\u003eThe Fiftieth Gate\u003c\/em\u003e, Mark Baker describes a journey from despair and death towards hope and life; it is the story of a son who enters his parents' memories and, inside the darkness, finds light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn his evocative prose, Baker takes us to this place of horror, and then brings us back to reflect on these events and remember: 'Never again'. Across the silence of fifty years, Baker and his family travel from Poland and Germany to Jerusalem and Melbourne, as the author struggles to uncover the mystery of his parents' survival: his father Yossl was imprisoned in concentration camps and his mother Genia was forced into hiding after the Jews of her village were murdered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwenty years on \u003cem\u003eThe Fiftieth Gate\u003c\/em\u003e remains an extraordinary book. It has become a classic and has now sold over 70,000 copies. In his new introduction, he recalls his motivations for writing this important memoir, and highlights how the testimonial culture in Holocaust studies has spread to awareness of other genocides and our responsibility (and failure) to prevent them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46380105269484,"sku":"9781925498615","price":27.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15311483482873.jpg?v=1744842337"},{"product_id":"thirty-days-by-mark-raphael-baker-9781925498653","title":"Thirty Days","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne minute my wife was there. In a flash she was gone. In the ten months of Kerryn's dying, I prepared myself for everything except for her death. Now that she is gone, I am desperate to know her as I never knew her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThirty Days\u003c\/em\u003e is a portrait of grief, of a marriage and of a family. It is the moving memoir of Mark's wife of 33 years, Kerryn Baker, who died ten months after her diagnosis, aged 55, from stomach cancer. It is also a study in how we construct our own version of the past, after Mark discovers a cache of Kerryn's letters in the laundry cupboard and has to rethink their relationship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a book about memory and its uncertainties, as Mark sifts through photos and home movies, as his wife gets sicker, and his search for clues about their relationship grows more desperate. In her last days, Kerryn reveals her traumatic childhood to Mark for the first time. She emerges as the rock of the family, a brave and wise woman, clear-eyed about her treatment, focused on finding the path to a peaceful death. Paradoxically, her dying brings the couple back to the intensity of their first love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the tradition of Paul Kalanithi's \u003cem\u003eWhen Breath Becomes Air\u003c\/em\u003e and Cory Taylor's remarkable memoir, \u003cem\u003eDying\u003c\/em\u003e, Mark Baker's \u003cem\u003eThirty Days\u003c\/em\u003e is an inspirational book about death and dying.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46380270289132,"sku":"9781925498653","price":35.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15311863482873.jpg?v=1744850891"},{"product_id":"season-of-death-by-mark-raphael-baker-9780522880892","title":"Season of Death","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMark Raphael Baker was no stranger to death. Over seven years, he became a mourner three times over: for his first wife, for his brother, and for his father. When diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he began to reflect on their deaths, his probable death, and on Death as, in the words of Ecclesiastes, a 'season' that produced a large and bitter harvest for the Baker family.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePowerful and conflicting emotions assailed him, but their destructive power was always defeated by his love of his family and of life, which never deserted him even when his spirit was most weary. Over the short course of his illness, he came to realise that to love both truly, he must die as the most authentic version of himself he can achieve. It enabled him to die with humbling grace and dignity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eA Season of Death\u003c\/i\u003e, readers of \u003ci\u003eThe Fiftieth Gate\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThirty Days\u003c\/i\u003e will rediscover the many forms of Mark's humour, his candour, and his depth of thought and feeling, albeit in a different key, as it must be when those virtues reveal themselves in expressions of vulnerability that fend off self-pity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere is profound sorrow in this memoir, but there is matching joy and much love, interwoven by a fine writer and thinker into a story that will deepen one's understanding of life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46628153655532,"sku":"9780522880892","price":32.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3943463482374.jpg?v=1751903949"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/mark-raphael-baker.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}