The Missing

A personal, powerful and resonant account of the Holocaust.

“Rosen shows children every shade of life–dark and gloomy or bright and dazzling.” Guardian.

By turns charming, shocking and heart-breaking, this is the true story of Michael Rosen’s search for his relatives who “went missing” during the Second World War–told through prose and poetry. When Michael was growing up, stories often hung in the air about his great-uncles: one was a clock-mender and the other a dentist. They were there before the war, his dad would say, and weren’t after. Over many years, Michael tried to find out exactly what happened: he interviewed family members, scoured the internet, pored over books and travelled to America and France. The story he uncovered was one of terrible persecution–and it has inspired his poetry for years since. Here, poems old and new are balanced against an immensely readable narrative; both an extraordinary account and a powerful tool for talking to children about the Holocaust.

“One of our most popular children’s authors … Michael Rosen has a talent for saying much in the simplest way.” The Times.

From the very beginning, Michael puts this personal Holocaust story in a powerful context: that of the ongoing refugee crisis.
The Missing is due to publish in the run up to Holocaust Memorial Day 2020, which marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz and 25 years since the Bosnian Genocide.