Elena: A Hand Made Life

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 WINGATE PRIZE***A GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR**This is the story of the ordinary extraordinary life of Dr Elena Zadik. 'Each page of this book contains treasures' - Lizzy Stewart, author of AlisonLives were bent in the furnaces of the twentieth century, but Elena Zadik was unbroken.

With a stethoscope, a jar of herring and a hearing aid occasionally switched on, she forged an extraordinary life.

Elena ran through the twentieth century without looking back. A refugee twice before she was 17, she broke glass ceilings to become a doctor during World War 2.

She was as brilliant a doctor as she was terrible a driver (she never took a test).

Finding community, falling in love and starting a family in Sheffield while her parents were imprisoned and killed in Auschwitz, she swam against the odds with courage and tenacity. Miriam gathers the threads of her Granny’s story, reflecting on their unconventional relationship and how trauma travels down through the generations in this gorgeous brocade of illustration and collage. Granny was an unintentionally hilarious woman, often difficult, always opinionated and deeply resourceful.

Her hands were always busy and form the heart of this timely, irresistible graphic story of the ordinary extraordinary resilience of women. A heartfelt and charming graphic memoir of love, family and fearless women.