Words to remember, drawings to heal: A legendary artist’s lifelong journey of rebuilding from the ashes.

These notebooks tell the story of a young survivor exploring his emotional and physical challenges after intense suffering, while discovering his strengths and abilities as he builds a life after the Holocaust. The writings reflect the author’s inner dialogue regarding the meaning of his existence, and his conversations, real and imagined, with his lost loved ones, contemporaries, and former fellow camp inmates with whom he shared his darkest hours.

In this eighth volume, which includes notebooks 15 and 16, Bacon resumes his studies after the summer break. In these diaries he questions his artistic talent, is concerned over his financial and emotional state and devotes time to contemplating his relationships. He describes the announcement of the partition in November 1947 and the ensuing civil war in Mandatory Palestine. These notebooks provide a rare insight into how a young survivor experienced these fraught political times in the months leading up to the establishment of the State of Israel.