Description
Book SynopsisLives Lived and Lost stands at the intersection of biography, autobiography, memory and history. It narrates a mother’s and daughter’s separate perspectives of their experiences before, during and after World War II. The book is also an ethnography of lives of women and children during a transformative period in Eastern Europe and opens a window to the crucial events of that epoch.
The challenge of the narratives provides the urgency of the story and the richness of the historical record. It is also an unforgettable story of love, loss and longing for family engulfed by war. The book will resonate with those interested in the lives of individual women and children, mothers and daughters, scholars, and students of history, World War II, gender, and religion, especially Hasidism, immigrants, and with mainstream readers in this and future generations unfamiliar with life during the first half of the twentieth century in Europe
Trade Review"This is a highly unusual and powerful Holocaust survivor memoir of mother and daughter...A remarkable and poignant mother-daughter odyssey." —
Christopher R. Browning, Frank Porter Graham Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"
Lives Lived and Lost is unique...The mother, Golda Finkler, recalls many specific details, providing a vivid account of life before, during, and after her internment. In addition to her own recollections of survival as a child, Kaja Finkler also brings to bear the insights and skills she gained through her life's work as a professional anthropologist. This book is thus as enlightening as it is moving. I have no doubt, that even those who have no personal connection to Polish Jewry or to the Holocaust will find beauty and insight in this extraordinary story of a mother/daughter relationship." —
Deborah Tannen, Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University and author of You're Wearing THAT?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation
