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Overview
The true story of a German-Jewish love that overcame the burdens of the past.
Finalist for the 2017 Book of the Year Award by the Chicago Writers Association
“A book that is hard to put down.”
Jerusalem Post
“This book confirms Annette Gendler as an indispensable Jewish voice for our time."
Yossi Klein Halevi, author of Like Dreamers
"The ghosts of the past haunt a woman’s search for herself in this thoughtful, poignant memoir about the transformative power of love and faith.”
Hillary Jordan, author of Mudbound, now a Netflix movie
“An exquisitely written conversion story which expounds upon personal and collective identity.”
Washington Independent Review of Books
“A compelling, gracefully written memoir about the impact of the past on the present.”
Michael Steinberg, author of Still Pitching
History was repeating itself when Annette fell in love with Harry, a Jewish man, the son of Holocaust survivors, in Germany in 1985. Her Great-Aunt Resi had been married to a Jew in Czechoslovakia before World War II―a marriage that, while happy, put the entire family in mortal danger once the Nazis took over their hometown in 1938.
Annette and Harry’s love, meanwhile, was the ultimate nightmare for Harry’s family. Not only was their son considering marrying a non-Jew, but a German. Weighed down by the burdens of their family histories, Annette and Harry kept their relationship secret for three years, until they could forge a path into the future and create a new life in Chicago. Annette found a spiritual home in Judaism―a choice that paved the way toward acceptance by Harry’s family, and redemption for some of the wounds of her own family’s past.
Finalist for the 2017 Book of the Year Award by the Chicago Writers Association
“A book that is hard to put down.”
Jerusalem Post
“This book confirms Annette Gendler as an indispensable Jewish voice for our time."
Yossi Klein Halevi, author of Like Dreamers
"The ghosts of the past haunt a woman’s search for herself in this thoughtful, poignant memoir about the transformative power of love and faith.”
Hillary Jordan, author of Mudbound, now a Netflix movie
“An exquisitely written conversion story which expounds upon personal and collective identity.”
Washington Independent Review of Books
“A compelling, gracefully written memoir about the impact of the past on the present.”
Michael Steinberg, author of Still Pitching
History was repeating itself when Annette fell in love with Harry, a Jewish man, the son of Holocaust survivors, in Germany in 1985. Her Great-Aunt Resi had been married to a Jew in Czechoslovakia before World War II―a marriage that, while happy, put the entire family in mortal danger once the Nazis took over their hometown in 1938.
Annette and Harry’s love, meanwhile, was the ultimate nightmare for Harry’s family. Not only was their son considering marrying a non-Jew, but a German. Weighed down by the burdens of their family histories, Annette and Harry kept their relationship secret for three years, until they could forge a path into the future and create a new life in Chicago. Annette found a spiritual home in Judaism―a choice that paved the way toward acceptance by Harry’s family, and redemption for some of the wounds of her own family’s past.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781631521706 |
---|---|
Publisher: | She Writes Press |
Publication date: | 04/04/2017 |
Pages: | 232 |
Sales rank: | 841,097 |
Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
Annette Gendler is a writer and photographer. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Tablet Magazine, Bella Grace, and Artful Blogging, to name a few. She served as the 2014–2015 writer-in-residence at the Hemingway Birthplace Home in Oak Park, Illinois. Born in New Jersey, she grew up in Munich, Germany, and lives in Chicago with her husband and three children. Visit her at www.annettegendler.com.
Table of Contents
First Thought 1
Fait Accompli I 8
Fust Date 17
Sholem Aleichem 24
Mea Culpa 28
Heading Off 31
Spain 34
The Talk 37
Israel 41
Behind Walls 51
Surberg 55
Sanatorium Brey 61
Verjudet 66
Crematorium 71
In the Stairwell 73
A Quarter and a Half 77
Unwanted Relations 82
The Flying Dutchman 89
This Is What It Means 100
Sheer of Ice 107
Fait Accompli II 110
Jumping Over the Shadow 112
Proposal 118
The Rabbi 121
Wedding Day 128
Conversion 134
Christmas 144
Gefilte Fish 151
Haselnusstorte 165
A German Jew Like You 167
The Pintele Yid 172
A Visit with the Past 174
Briosne 180
Sh'ma 191
Epilogue 209
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