A NOTE ON SOURCES
I referred to many texts in researching The Hollow Bones. Particularly helpful were The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust by Heather Pringle (Hyperion, 2006) and Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich by Eric Kurlander (Yale University Press, 2017). Nazis in Tibet by Peter Meier-Husing (Theiss, 2017); Himmler’s Crusade by Christopher Hale (Bantam, 2003); and Tibet in 1938–1939: Photographs from the Ernst Schäfer Expedition to Tibet, edited by Isrun Engelhardt (Serindia Publications, 2007), have been invaluable resources. Also useful were: The Private Heinrich Himmler, edited by Katrin Himmler and Michael Wildt (St. Martin’s Press, 2014); From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich by Gretchen E. Schafft (University of Illinois Press, 2004); The Nazi Doctors: A Study in the Psychology of Evil by Robert Jay Lifton (MacMillan, 1986); I Shall Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1933–1941 (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1998); Letters from Berlin by Margarete Dos and Kerstin Lieff (Vintage, 2012); Tournament of the Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Asia by Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac (Counterpoint, 1999); Biologists under Hitler by Ute Deichmann, translated by Thomas Dunlap (Harvard University Press, 1996); Berlin 1936: Sixteen Days in August by Oliver Hilmes (The Bodley Head, 2018); Lhasa: The Holy City by Spencer Chapman (Chatto & Windus, 1940); and The Yangtze and the Yak: Adventurous Trails In and Out of Tibet by Marion H. Duncan (Edwards Bros, 1952). Surrounded by books about such dark times, it was a joy to turn to a range of books about nature, including The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman (Scribe, 2016); The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes (Head of Zeus, 2016); The Life of Birds by David Attenborough (BBC Books, 1998); Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide by Charles Foster (Metropolitan Books, 2016); and The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing by Rachel Poliquin (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012).
Brooke Dolan’s field diaries, along with many photographs and documents from the Dolan–Schäfer expeditions provided by Jennifer Vess at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University, Philadelphia, were an invaluable source of information, as was the assistance with specimen-viewing thanks to Ned Gilmore, Collections Manager. Barbara Ellermeier provided me with an abundance of research material related to not only the German Tibet Expedition, but also to 1930s Germany. I also drew on Ernst Schäfer’s numerous books and diaries, as well as photos and film footage of his various travels.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leah Kaminsky won the Voss Literary Prize for her debut novel, The Waiting Room, which was also shortlisted for the Helen Asher Award. The author of nine books, she holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Praise for The Hollow Bones
‘From the horrors and dark truths of the Reich, Leah Kaminsky fashions a poignant romance within a chilling, mesmerising narrative. This is an account of the “scientific” attempt to locate the origin of the Aryan race in the distant past of Tibet. The storytelling is fresh and astonishing, gently echoing with birdsong. It takes readers deep into madness and doom, while transporting them into the grace of human love, the redemptive beauty of the natural world.’ – Carmel Bird
‘An evocative, harrowing story of one man’s obsession to preserve nature in a glass jar, The Hollow Bones reminds us that creatures of the wild belong there and we destroy their habitat at our peril. Kaminsky has magically woven the dual narratives of past and present through a unique telling of such an important historical tale, which will thrill, enlighten and reward the reader.’ – Heather Morris
‘In this prescient and thoughtful novel, a long-dead animal displayed in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia murmurs about the wild places of its lost life, while the story of the scientist who destroyed it exposes the collaboration between totalitarianism, corrupted science and the slaughter of people and animals.’ – Brenda Walker
Praise for The Waiting Room
Winner of the Voss Literary Prize
‘Leah Kaminsky’s debut novel, The Waiting Room, is nail-biting, but not in a whodunnit way; in the way of an eight-month-pregnant protagonist holding her breath against the dual assault of Israeli terrorism and Holocaust memories. Not for the faint-hearted, but with a surprising surfeit of grace notes.’ – Clare Wright, Sydney Morning Herald
‘An assured debut with a complex, believable and engaging protagonist. Finely observed characters and vignettes give us a human perspective on a culture that is too often portrayed only in political terms. Compelling, moving and memorable, The Waiting Room took me to Israel in the way The Kite Runner took me to Afghanistan, and shone a light on the generational impact of the Holocaust.’ – Graeme Simsion
‘Dina, the child of Holocaust survivors, struggles herself to survive the burden of memory and misery that has infused her Melbourne childhood. Far from home, working as a doctor in Haifa and married to a stoic Israeli, she must find a way to quiet her ghosts before their dark voices further dim her own chance at happiness. The Waiting Room is both haunted, and haunting.’ – Geraldine Brooks
‘Leah Kaminsky knows the stress of a doctor’s life: she is one. This is why her debut novel about a pregnant Israeli GP has such an authentic flavour. We’re right there with her as she rushes about her duties, haunted by her persistently present but dead mother and living on high alert, ever vigilant for the next terrorist attack. The Waiting Room convincingly conveys all the intensity of Israeli everyday life.’ – Caroline Baum, Booktopia Buzz
Also by Leah Kaminsky
FICTION
The Waiting Room
NON-FICTION
Cracking the Code
(with Stephen and Sally Damiani)
We’re All Going to Die
POETRY
Stitching Things Together
AS EDITOR
Writer, M.D.: The Best Contemporary Fiction and Non-Fiction by Doctors
A Vintage Australia book
Published by Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
penguin.com.au
First published by Vintage Australia in 2019
Copyright © Leah Kaminsky 2019
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, published, performed in public or communicated to the public in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd or its authorised licensees.
Addresses for the Penguin Random House group of companies can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com/offices
ISBN 9780143788928
Cover images: hoopoe © DEA PICTURE LIBRARY/Getty Images; background © foxie/Shutterstock
Cover design by Alex Ross © Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Excerpt of ‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’ from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Bird illustrations: common whitethroat © duncan1890/Getty Images; mallard duck © Hein Nouwens/Shutterstock; bearded vulture © Marzolino/Shutterstock
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