Celestial | Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaus...

Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory

Solomon J. Brager

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A moving and provocative graphic memoir exploring inherited trauma, family history, and the ever-shifting understanding of our own identities, for readers of Gender Queer and I Was Their American Dream.

Solomon Brager grew up with accounts of their great-grandparents’ escape from Nazi Germany, told over and over until their understanding of self was bound up with the heroic details of their ancestors’ exploits. Their great-grandmother related how her husband, a boxing champion, thrashed Joseph Goebbels and cleared beer halls of Nazis with his fists, how she broke him out of an internment camp and carried their children over the Pyrenees mountains. But that story was never the whole picture; zooming out, everything becomes more complicated.

Alongside the Levis’ propulsive journey across Europe and to the United States, Brager distills fascinating research about the Holocaust and connected periods of colonial history. Heavyweight asks us to consider how the patterns of history emerge and reverberate, not as a simple chain of events but in haunting layers. Confronting the specters of violence as both historian and descendent, this book is an exploration of family mythology, intergenerational memory, and the mark the past makes on the present.

In conversation with works by Rebecca Hall, Nora Krug, Rutu Modan, and Leela Corman, Heavyweight will contribute to the collective work of Holocaust studies and the chronicle of woven human stories.

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Posts about this title from Celestial

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Dec 19 2025

🕎 happy hanukkah & happy holidays to everyone!

🕎 happy hanukkah & happy holidays to everyone! i know this can be a really challenging time of year for a number of reasons, so sending all the love to all of you.

📚 books mentioned: - The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez - Model Home by Rivers Solomon - Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott - Ring of Solomon by Aden Polydoros - Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory by Solomon J. Brager - The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero - The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan - Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

👗💄: - dress is from Cider - eyeshadow is from Ourbella - eyeliner is from Kaleidos - (also if you have a question about my makeup or something i’m wearing, most of it is curated in my shopmy!)

thank you to Tor Books, Anchor, Inkyard/HarperCollins, William Morrow, Peachtree Teen, and Erewhon Books for the gifted copies!

#fantasybooks #horrorbooks #jewishbooks #jewishauthors #happyhanukkah #starrysteph #nycinfluencer #diversebookstagram #nycbookstagram #bookstagram @torbooks @mcdbooks @vintageanchorbooks @aaknopf @inkyardpress @harpercollins @williammorrowbooks @peachtreeteen @erewhonbooks @harpervoyagerus @ourbella.us @kaleidosmakeup

8 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Dec 1 2025

💭 do you have a favorite memoir?

✨memoir recommendations by nonbinary & agender authors! 📚 books mentioned: - Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir by Walela Nehanda - Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory by Solomon J. Brager - Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

👗💄: - hair gems are from Hally Hair - eyeshadow is the mermaid palette from Ourbella - (also if you have a question about my makeup or something i’m wearing, most of it is curated in my shopmy!)

thank you to Kokila Books/Penguin Teen and William Morrow for the gifted copies!

#memoirrecs #memoirbookrecs #nonfictionbooks #starrysteph #nycinfluencer #diversebookstagram #nycbookstagram #bookstagram #penguinteenpartner #williammorrow @kokilabooks @penguinteen @williammorrowbooks @riverheadbooks @ourbella.us @hallyhair

3 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Sep 13 2025

recommending books using their opening lines!!

📚 books mentioned: - Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase - The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei - The Unfinished by Cheryl Isaacs - Heavyweight by Solomon J. Brager - Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa - The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez - Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - When Among Crows by Veronica Roth - The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero

👗💄: - sweat set is from @comfrt - (also if you have a question about my makeup or something i’m wearing, most of it is curated in my shopmy!)

thank you to Flatiron Books, Heartdrum, William Borrow, Berkley, Tor Books, and Peachtree Teen for the gifted copies!

#bookrecsfromfirstlines #bookfirstlines #firstlines #fantasybooks #horrorbooks #scifibooks #BerkleyPartner #starrysteph #nycinfluencer #diversebookstagram #nycbookstagram #bookstagram @erewhonbooks @flatiron_books @harpercollins @williammorrowbooks @berkleypub @torbooks @marinerbooks @peachtreeteen

9 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Mar 9 2025

30+ trans & nonbinary book recs | trans rights readathon 2025 prep!

feel free to recommend your favorite trans book in the comment section (or pitch your own if you're an author)!!

let's fill these comments with love so this video doesn't end up on the scary side of the algorithm.

☆ featured links ☆ official trans rights readathon website (with TONS of resources): https://transrightsreadathon.carrd.co/ PLEASE sign up here to be included in the data: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/2025-trans-rights-readathon 💫 join me on bindery (celestial - exclusive content, discord, book club, and more): https://celestial.binderybooks.com/

☆ everything I mentioned (in order) ↓ - Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi - Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi - Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi - The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi - You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi - Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi - Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi - The Deep by Rivers Solomon - Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon - An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon - Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White - The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White - Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White - The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros - Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros - Bone Weaver by Aden Polydoros - Ring of Solomon by Aden Polydoros - The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey - Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey - Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas - The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas - Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas - Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki - Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison - Heavyweight by Solomon J. Brager - The Seep by Chana Porter - The Devourers by Indra Das - The First Bright Thing by J. R. Dawson - The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia - Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo - Station Six by S.J. Klapecki - Junker Seven by Olive J. Kelley - Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto

↓ find me in more places ↓ 🎵 tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@starrysteph 📸 insta: https://www.instagram.com/starry.steph 🦋 bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/starrysteph.bsky.social 📚 storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/starrysteph 📖 goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/147956803-steph-starrysteph 💌 email: starrystephbooks@gmail.com more: https://beacons.ai/starrysteph

☆ resources ☆ 🇵🇸 learn more about the history of Palestine: https://decolonizepalestine.com/ 🇨🇩 learn more about what's happening in the DRC: https://friendsofthecongo.org/ 🇸🇩 Sudan Solidarity Collective: https://sudansolidarity.com/

34 books

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