Galerie by Steven Greenberg
WINNER: Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, Fall 2015 — Best Books in Fiction.
Every family has secrets, but some are far darker, reach deeper, and touch a rawer nerve than others.
For Vanesa Neuman, the past is a closed book. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, her childhood in the cramped intimacy of south Tel Aviv is shadowed by her parents’ unspoken wartime experiences. But when her father passes away, the closed book falls literally open. Vanesa decides to unravel the mystery of the diary she has received, and strange symbol in it, at all costs.
Set against the backdrop of the Jewish Museum of Prague during the Nazi occupation – Adolf Eichmann’s “Museum of an Extinct Race” – Galerie is fast-paced historical fiction in the tradition of Tatiana De Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key. From Jerusalem’s Yad V’Shem Holocaust research center, to the backstreets of Prague, and into the former “paradise ghetto” of Theresienstadt – Vanesa’s journey of understanding will reveal a darker family past than she ever imagined and a secret kept alive for over half a century.
PERFECT FOR BOOK CLUBS: A book club guide is included at the end of the story.
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Praise for Galerie by Steven Greenberg
“…dark and gritty…the story and writing lift it up to the point of being nearly sublime. Buy this book and say goodbye to your family for the weekend, because you will not want to put it down once you get started.” ~ Eric W. Swett
“Galerie is a gripping read, rich with intrigue from beginning to end. As much a thriller as a Holocaust novel…” ~ BookWormNZ
“Imagine Stephen King wrote Schindler’s List…Galerie manages to break away from the accepted treatment of Europe’s darkest hour and explore the horror from an unexpected point of view.” ~ Nikki
“…uncomfortable in moments, but so provocative that it is impossible to put down.” ~ Sydology
Guest Post by Steven Greenberg, Author of Galerie
On Trust and the Value of Being There
The storyline was compelling: a spy novel set in modern Tel Aviv. I can’t remember the name of the book, but I very clearly remember the scene at which I threw it down in disgust (this was in the olden days, when you could actually throw a book down without cracking its screen): Having overcome a rival, the protagonist sits coolly on the balcony of her Tel Aviv hotel room. Sipping whiskey, she ponders the nature of good and evil as the sun rises over the Mediterranean and a new day dawns on the troubled Middle East.
A powerful image, no? It could be, were it not for the fact that the sun doesn’t rise over the Mediterranean in Tel Aviv. It rises over the city, and sets over the ocean to the west. The author couldn’t be bothered to check such mundane facts, and as such completely lost me.
Living in Israel, I have the unfair advantage of having Tel Aviv (the partial setting for all my books thus far) nearby. But for the other venues in my books, I’ve thus far visited all humanly possible and can say with some authority that there really is no substitute for being there.
While researching Galerie, I visited Prague with my son in the winter of 2012. We spent a full day at the sites of the Jewish Museum of Prague—whose staff assisted me greatly in the research and writing of the book. We took public transportation to Terezin, the site of the Theresienstadt concentration camp, in which Galerie is partially set. But mostly, we simply walked and looked around. The images from these endless (and tiring) walks are still with me, and enabled me (I believe) to create more vivid, more realistic and more engaging descriptions of the settings through which Galerie’s characters moved.
More recently, I just came back from a long weekend in Warsaw, Poland, where I was researching my new book. Despite the February cold (why do these trips always end up in the winter?), I spent three days pounding the pavement of that graceless city. I hit out-of-the-way museums. I stood looking at various vantage points long enough to arouse the suspicion of passers-by. I asked pesky questions of museum attendants, hotel staff, and even cab drivers. With the object of getting a feel for what my protagonist might have seen, I soaked up the atmosphere, and took copious notes in the evenings at my hotel.
It is not always feasible to be there. As an Israeli, there was no possibility of visiting Beirut to research the scenes set there in my upcoming novel Enfold Me. To compensate for this, in addition to copious background reading, I spent hours upon hours ‘walking’ through the city via Google Maps Street View. I watched countless videos shot from planes landing at Beirut airport (yes, these really exist, and not just for Beirut) to get a feel for what the protagonist would see looking out the window of the plane, even noting from which side of the plane he would have seen what. I pored over maps and Google Earth. Oh, and I triple-checked from which direction the sun rises (to be fair, it’s the same as Tel Aviv).
As a reader, as in life, I have high expectations. I am unforgiving, and expect authors to do their homework. As a writer, I expect nothing less of myself. By setting my novel in a certain location, I am claiming a level of expertise that should be of value to you, my intelligent reader. Peddling inaccuracies–especially one so blatant as the sunrise fiasco–is not only an insult to the reader’s intelligence, it is a fundamental betrayal of trust. And if you, the reader, cannot trust that my story is accurate as well as compelling—why would I expect you to buy my book?
Steven Greenberg is a professional writer, as well as a full-time cook, cleaner, chauffeur, and work-at-home Dad for three amazing young children, and the lucky husband of a loving and very supportive wife. Born in Texas and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Steven emigrated to Israel only months before the first Gulf War, following graduation from Indiana University in 1990. In 1996, he was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, where he served for 12 years as a Reserves Combat Medic. Since 2002, Steven has worked as an independent marketing writer, copywriter and consultant.
You can find more information at Steven Greenberg’s website. You can also find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
Giveaway of Galerie by Steven Greenberg
This giveaway is for one ebook and is open internationally. This giveaway ends on April 29, 2016, 12 am pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.
Tour Schedule for Galerie by Steven Greenberg
Tuesday, April 5
Review at Library Educated
Wednesday, April 6
Review & Giveaway at Man of la Book
Interview at Library Educated
Thursday, April 7
Review at With Her Nose Stuck in a Book
Review & Giveaway at The Maiden’s Court
Friday, April 8
Review & Giveaway at Singing Librarian Books
Monday, April 11
Guest Post & Giveaway at Teddy Rose Book Reviews
Tuesday, April 12
Review at Eclectic Ramblings of Author Heather Osborne
Wednesday, April 13
Review at Flashlight Commentary
Thursday, April 14
Review at Bookramblings
Interview at Flashlight Commentary
Friday, April 15
Review at Book Nerd
