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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Book Blast/Giveaway: They Were Like Family to Me by Helen Maryles Shankman

Critically praised, beloved by readers, In the Land of Armadillos has an evocative new cover and title, They Were Like Family to Me. 

1942. With the Nazi Party at the height of its power, the occupying army empties Poland's towns and cities of their Jewish citizens. As neighbor turns on neighbor and survival often demands unthinkable choices, Poland has become a moral quagmire—a place of shifting truths and blinding ambiguities.

 Blending folklore and fact, Helen Maryles Shankman shows us the people of Wlodawa, a remote Polish town. We meet a cold-blooded SS officer dedicated to rescuing the Jewish creator of his son's favorite picture book; a Messiah who appears in a little boy's bedroom to announce that he is quitting; a young Jewish girl who is hidden by the town's most outspoken anti-Semite—and his talking dog. And walking among these tales are two unforgettable figures: silver-tongued Willy Reinhart, commandant of the forced labor camp who has grand schemes to protect "his" Jews, and Soroka, the Jewish saddlemaker, struggling to survive.

Channeling the mythic magic of classic storytellers like Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer and the psychological acuity of modern-day masters like Nicole Krauss and Nathan Englander, They Were Like Family to Me is a testament to the persistence of humanity in the most inhuman conditions.

Now in Paperback!
 Available October 4.

Connect with Helen

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“One of the most original and consistently captivating short story collections to have appeared in recent years…(They Were Like Family to Me) is a singularly inventive collection of chilling stark realism enhanced by the hallucinatory ingredient of top-drawer magical realism, interrogating the value of art, storytelling, and dreams in a time of peril and presenting hard truths with wisdom, magic, and grace.” Jewish Book Council

“Moving and unsettling…Like Joyce's Dubliners, this book circles the same streets and encounters the same people as it depicts the horrors of Germany's invasion of Poland through the microcosm of one village…Shankman's prose is inventive and taut… A deeply humane demonstration of wringing art from catastrophe.” Kirkus Reviews

“...by turns forthright and tender, oblique and intimate, brutal and ethereal…Though each story stands beautifully on its own, it is the completed tapestry of interwoven details that finally reveals the entire picture and provides the full emotional depth of the collected stories…The author’s greatest accomplishment is in leaving the horror to speak for itself, and instead giving voice to the enchantment.” Historical Novel Society

They Were Like Family to Me

5 comments:

  1. This book is profound and meaningful. Thanks for this great feature and giveaway which I would treasure and cherish. being Jewish this book is memorable and would be enjoyed. elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  2. This one sounds really interesting! I am adding it to my TBR!

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  3. I love short stories. I am torn between so many. I love Back Again by Susan May & The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Thank you for the giveaway.

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  4. Thanks for featuring this book for the tour!

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  5. This book sounds awesome and right up my alley. I do so love a great historical fiction read. The cover is quite eye catching too. Thanks for the review, Margaret, I'll add it to my TBR list. :)

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