I grew up hearing stories.
My own family stories involved surviving years in a prison camp during the Holocaust and fleeing Germany on a freighter headed for the unknown. My friends, also mostly first generation Americans, shared the stories of their family histories, and I became fascinated, no, okay, obsessed, with these tales of survival and thriving in the face of devastating adversity.
Woven is the result. This story had been banging my door down my whole adult life and I knew it had to be told, deserved to be told, needed to be told. But I was teaching full time, working towards advanced degrees, raising three children, two cats, a dog, three ferrets, a turtle, gerbils, mice, and fish. You get it; life was busy happening and the story got buried somewhere. I lost hope that I’d ever be able to find it, even after all the pets went over the rainbow bridge and all the kids moved out to continue their own stories.
And then I retired from teaching. And we were quarantined from all the grandiose plans we had made to enjoy traveling and exploring after retiring, and it was just me and a laptop, and the story came pouring back.
Woven tells the history we learned about in school through the eyes of those who actually lived it. Because that’s what history is and that’s what historical fiction does. The construct of this novel as separate novellas that weave together to tell the story serves the purpose of showing how lives intersect through history and form new stories.
Reviews say:
“The take-away from this poignant book is that as individuals, we are products of our time, but as members of society, we are a link in the chain of humanity. Kudos to the author for digging deep into history to tell stories that have already been forgotten.”
“Powerful writing keeps the reader engaged and curious to the very end!! It makes the reader want to know more about their own family’s heritage.”
“It’s good to see that the art of writing has not been lost. The author does a brilliant job taking the reader through the journey.” I highly recommend this book.”
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