Focusing on the historical traces of her dead relatives, they put together several hypotheses of how and why the mysterious postcard was sent with the help of a private detective, a criminologist, archival research, and interviews with villagers who knew the family before their arrest.

Through her quest, which stretches back to the dawn of the twentieth century, Anne Berest retraces the destiny of her Rabinovitch ancestors, their flight from Russia, voyage to Latvia and then Palestine, and finally, their arrival in Paris where their peace is ultimately disrupted by the outbreak of World War II and its devastation to the Jewish population in France.

[2] In a 2023 interview with NPR, Anne Berest discussed the theme of "invisible transmissions," the notion that one tends to repeat similar actions and possess the same sentiments and fears as their ancestors without consciously knowing about those experiences.

[2] While investigating her family members, Berest learned that there were many overlapping aspects of her life and the lives of her relatives, which she weaves into The Postcard as demonstrations of her own invisible transmissions.

[6] Particularly in Myriam's case, she found it too painful to discuss her parents and siblings with her own daughter and granddaughter, which left a large part of their history unknown to them.

[6] This allows for the personal journey that Anne goes through in her novel in search for how her Jewish identity fits into her life as she learns more about the past that was forced into hiding well beyond the end of World War II.

However, just nine days after the vote, one of the jurors, Camille Laurens, wrote a brutal review of the La Carte Postale, calling it "Shoah for idiots.

"[7][11] Laurens was revealed to be romantically involved with François Noudelmann, whose novel Les Enfants de Cadillac was also on the shortlist for the prize.

[13] Kover has discussed how the process of translating a novel that reflects the experiences of real people who suffered during the Holocaust was challenging and emotional.

[13] By translating La Carte Postale, Tina Kover continued Anne Berest's goal of allowing her family members to live through her writing, preventing them from being lost among the many names that never made it out of the Holocaust.