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A fearful and ominous spectre haunts the background of this book. Its author, Sophia Richman, a child survivor of the Holocaust, was born in
Lvov, then in eastern Poland, in 1941. In the middle of her first year, the German army marched into the area as part of the invasion of Russia, thus threatening the survival of the resident Polish Jews. Richman's mother managed to obtain the papers of a deceased Catholic woman; mother and daughter hid for four years in a small village some miles from Lvov, under constant danger of disclosure. Later the author's father escaped from a concentration camp and found shelter in a cramped attic space attached to the apartment where they were living.
In 2002 Richman published A Wolf in the Attic: The Legacy of a Hidden Child of the Holocaust, a memoir describing the difficulties to which she was exposed. As a small child she was warned by her mother not to go into the attic because a wolf lived there. When eventually she became aware of her father's presence, she was urged to participate in the concealment and had to experience the frightening possibility that their identity might be revealed. She describes an early memory of an intruder threatening to enter their apartment while she was with her father, and of having to dissimulate and deny his presence. The traumatic nature of the fears and the child's need to conceal are referred to in the present book as well.
Mended by the Muse explores how reactions to trauma can be transformed by creativity. Although trauma is not confined to the Holocaust, it clearly serves as a prototype, and the author's childhood experiences have a strong influence on the direction the book takes. Trauma is given a broad perspective. It is understood subjectively as ranging from losses following exposure to violent and catastrophic events, leaving a person overwhelmed and helpless, to activities more resembling “everyday” experiences. Creativity is also understood broadly. As an example, Richman offers her