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Alan LelchukThanks to Rachel Tarlow Gul of Over the River Public Relations, I am giving away one print copy of ‘Searching For Wallenburg’ by Alan Lelchuk.

Description of ‘Searching For Wallenburg’ by Alan Lelchuk:


After reading a graduate student’s thesis about the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in Budapest from 1944 to 1945, Professor Manny Gellerman–part-time detective, historian, and novelist–follows the twists and turns along unorthodox paths and uncovers some uncomfortable truths that may explain what happened when Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviets in 1945, taken to Moscow, and left to fester in a Lybianka prison.

Now more than 65 years later, Gellerman begins unthreading these mysteries–and discovers that the deepest may be Wallenberg, himself. Who was the real man behind the legendary persona of noble diplomat and savior of Budapest Jews? Gellerman’s quest eventually leads him to a Jewish Hungarian woman, who claims she is Raoul Wallenberg’s daughter. At once a detective story and an unusual love story, this novel within a novel is filled with multiple layers and surprising characters that all lead to a deeper understanding of this enigmatic hero.

Praise for ‘Searching For Wallenburg’ by Alan Lelchuk:


”Part detective story, part philosophic inquiry, part historic revisionism, Alan Lelchuk delivers a thinking man’s thriller: Intellectual noir that is both painful and personal.” —Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize- and Oscar-winning cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and author of numerous novels, children’s books, plays and screenplays, including Carnal Knowledge, Harry, The Rat with Women, and Little Murders

”Sometimes we are better served by a novelist’s imagination than by a professional historian’s scholarship. Alan Lelchuk drives this argument home with a brilliantly constructed literary investigation into the mysterious life and death of Raoul Wallenberg. The strength of the fiction lies in its ambiguity: this is how it might have been–or maybe not.” —Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ,

”Anyone who cared to know has known for decades roughly what happened to the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg after he disappeared into Russian hands in Hungary in 1945. But exactly what happened–and why, and when, and where?–nobody knows. Not knowing is the great subject of Alan Lelchuk’s remarkable novel about one man’s effort to learn to live on the border separating the known and the unknown.” —Thomas Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, “Heisenberg s War: The Secret History of the German Bomb”; and “The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA”

About Alan Lelchuk:Alan Lelchuk


Alan Lelchuk is a novelist and professor, who was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.A. in World Literature from Brooklyn College in 1960, studied at University College (London) in 1962-63, and received his M.A.in 1963 and Ph.D. in 1965, both in English from Stanford University.

His critically acclaimed novels are American Mischief, Miriam at Thirty-Four, Shrinking: The Beginning of My Own Ending, Miriam in Her Forties, Brooklyn Boy, Playing the Game, and Ziff: A Life? He co-edited 8 Great Hebrew Short Novels and has written, for young adults, On Home Ground.

He is a co-founder of Steerforth Press, has taught at Brandeis University and Amherst College, and since 1985 has been on the faculty of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

This giveaway is open internationally and ends on June 22, 2015. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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02_Behind the Forgotten Front CoverPublication Date: August 22, 2014

e-book: ISBN 978-0-9915984-2-7 (309 pages)

Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9915984-1-0 (318 pages)

Genre: Historical Fiction/World War II

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It’s 1942 and Harry Flynn enlists to fight in the war expecting to find the thrill of danger and honor of military service. He leaves behind the love of his life to journey into a world of tigers, elephants and Himalayan Mountains. Instead of a fighting position, Harry is sent to the Forgotten Front in the Indian subcontinent as an ordinary supply officer. There, General Joseph ‘Vinegar Joe’ Stilwell is constructing a ‘road to nowhere’ through Japanese-occupied Burma. The general will do anything to get the road built.

In this exotic world with Naga headhunters, opium-smoking Kachin tribesmen, and marauders who scorn both life and death, Harry forges unlikely friendships. He’s forced to obey orders that challenge his principles and is torn between being true to himself or ‘no man at all.’ Eventually, not willing to let Uncle Sam needlessly condemn the road crew to death, he rebels.

He tries to sabotage the road’s progress where an Afro-American construction regiment is losing a man a mile due to disease and crumbling mountain slopes. Then a commanding officer spots his unconventional skills. Immediately he’s transferred to America’s first guerrilla-supported unit: Merrill’s Marauders and later the Mars Task Force. Here, he must entrust his life to others. During a time when boys were forced to come of age on the battlefield, Harry must find what makes his life worth living or die.

The lessons learned in World War II apply to all wars, where men walk away carrying unspeakable memories and lives that ‘could have been’ haunt those that lived. Behind the Forgotten Front brings them all back to life and shows that history is about facts driven by passions and sometimes the mistakes of real people.

Praise for Behind the Forgotten Front by Barbara Hawkins


“Barbara’s debut novel is a compelling examination of man and war and the interaction between them. The miracle of this novel is how Barbara brings this `forgotten front’ to life. Barbara accomplishes her goals in this her debut – bringing to our attention the impact war has on all soldiers, no matter their assignment. She also sets a very high standard for her next book. Brava!” – Grady Harp, Amazon Reviewer

My Thoughts on Behind the Forgotten Front by Barbara Hawkins


Have you ever heard of “the Road to nowhere”?  I have but I didn’t know what it referred to. After reading ‘Behind the Forgotten Front’, I now know where the reference came from.  I also learned more about the part of WWII that took place in India, the part of the war the has been mostly forgotten.

I was drawn to this book because it covers part of WWII that has received little attention. Harry Flynn is excited to be going to serve his country in WWII.  He is looking forward to the thrill and honor of it.  However, he is sent to the Himalayan Mountains to be a supply officer.  Far from what he sees as the glamour of a fighting soldier.  There most men considered expendable (African American and Chinese) are building a “road to nowhere”.  The goal is to have a road built to Japanese occupied Burma.  However, with such a long monsoon season, it like one step forward three steps back.  Mudslides occur often and many men have died.

Later, Harry does get to fight but find out that it is not glamorous at all.

The first part of this book, I found a bit slow going but it didn’t take me too long before I could start turning the pages at a good clip.  Many WWII stories are highly romanticised but Barbara Hawkins did not do that.  For that, I am grateful! War is not romantic, especially to the soldiers living and dying through it. Yes, it is war, there is blood and guts and people loose limbs or worse.  I don’t believe it should not be sugar coated.

It is apparent the Barbara Hawkins spent a lot of time researching the lesser know war in Burma.  She also does a great job shaping the characters and plot.  If you enjoy historical fiction and WWII fiction that isn’t romanticised, you should read ‘Behind the Forgotten Front’!

4/5

I received an ebook copy for my honest review.

Buy Behind the Forgotten Front by Barbara Hawkins


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About Barbara Hawkins03_Barbara Hawkins Author


Barbara Hawkins started writing a pseudo-memoir about her time spent in Guatemala during the 1970’s-1980’s civil war. It was too close to her heart, so she had to switch to something she wanted to tell a story about but also had a worthwhile message. Her father had always wanted to write a book about the time he’d spent in World War II but died before he could reach that goal. So she thought she’d give it a try.

She knew he was stationed in Sri Lanka, but she didn’t find much to write about there. So she gravitated to what she knew best, engineering and jungles. The story of the Afro-American construction regiment building Stilwell’s Road grabbed her attention and who could not be mesmerized by American’s first guerrilla supported units: Merrill’s Marauders and the Mars Task Force? Half-way through the book her sister found her dad’s diary from the War. He was actually in the Mars Task Force. The scene with Lt. Jack Knight was taken from his diary and the ending was from a conversation she had with her dad just before he died. Having given a promise to keep his WWII missions a secret for fifty years, it was the only time her father spoke of the War.

Ms. Hawkins holds BS degrees from the University of Minnesota where she studied Botany and Mathematics. She taught mathematics and science in High School until she realized she hated being a disciplinarian. From there she traveled to jungles in Latin America collecting plant specimens for several universities. She also has a MS in Civil Engineering. For the last twenty-five-years she has worked as a professional engineer. Her hobbies vary from cooking and yoga to bicycling and adventure travel.

For more information visit Barbara Hawkins’ website.

Enter the Book Giveaway to Win Behind the Forgotten Front by Barbara Hawkins


This giveaway is for one print copy and is open to the U.S. only.  It ends on May 29, 2015.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Behind the Forgotten Front by Barbara Hawkins Blog Tour Schedule


Monday, May 11

Review at Flashlight Commentary

Interview at Boom Baby Reviews

Tuesday, May 12

Review at With Her Nose Stuck in a Book

Wednesday, May 13

Review & Giveaway at Forever Ashley

Spotlight at A Literary Vacation

Thursday, May 14

Spotlight at CelticLady’s Reviews

Friday, May 15

Review & Giveaway at Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More

Saturday, May 16

Review at Impressions in Ink

Spotlight at Just One More Chapter

Monday, May 18

Review & Giveaway at Unshelfish

Tuesday, May 19

Spotlight & Giveaway at Passages to the Past

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I received the following in my email from a publicity firm.  Most of the time I just delete emails that ask me to post something, etc but this one moved me to tears.  

Jill Klein

GeneKlein

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Please read the following and remember Gene Klien, the German who helped him survive, his father, mother, and all those who survive and didn’t survive the Holocaust!

Please Remember: Holocaust Remembrance Day by Gene Klein

It has been 70 years since I was liberated from a Nazi concentration camp. I was just a teenager then; I’m 87 now.  Holocaust Remembrance Day is April 15th, and I have been thinking about what I want you and your loved ones to remember about the Holocaust. I speak frequently about my experiences, and I am able to remind people about what happened, provide them with vivid descriptions, and answer their questions. But I am among the last of the survivors, and one day—sooner than I would like to think—we will all be gone.

Here is what I want you to remember after we are gone, when our memories must become yours, so that future generations will have the knowledge and compassion to avoid the mistakes of the past:

Please remember the life we had before it all started; before the name-calling, the bricks through the windows, long before the cattle cars and the camps. I was born into a middle class Hungarian family in a small town in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains. Our town was charming. We sat in outdoor cafes on summer evenings, and skated on the river on winter afternoons. My father owned a hardware store, was an avid soccer fan, and loved to tend to his garden. My mother took care of my two sisters and me, and was preoccupied with getting me—a naturally skinny kid—to eat more. We were not wealthy, but we had everything we needed. In the most basic of ways, we were not unlike you and your family. And we felt as secure as you do now.

Please remember that all of this was taken away. Within a few weeks in the spring of 1944, my father’s store was confiscated, my Jewish friends and I were told that we were no longer welcome at school, and we were forced to wear a yellow star. Then we were forced from our home, crowded into cattle cars, and taken to Auschwitz. When we arrived, the men were separated from the women, and then my father was separated from me.

My father had been a POW in World War I, and during his years of imprisonment he learned to play the violin and to speak five languages. He was intelligent and humorous. I loved him the way any 16-year-old boy loves a wonderful father. The way you love your father, if you are lucky enough to have a good one. So imagine this: a man in a black uniform sends you to one direction and your father to another. You don’t know why, until the next day a veteran prisoner points up at the smoke coming out of a chimney and says, “Your father is up there.” Please remember my father.

Please remember that it is terribly easy for one group to strike another group off the roster of humanity, to see others as vermin or pests, as an affliction that must be destroyed. It happens again and again. And once it does, people are capable of inflicting terrible hardship and pain on others, and to feel they are righteous in doing so. None of the SS officers who ordered me—a starving teenager—to carry heavy steel rails up a hillside thought of themselves as monsters. They were adhering to their beliefs, and they were serving their country. We must be constantly vigilant for the descent that takes us from self-righteous beliefs, to the dehumanization of others and into the sphere of violence.

Please remember that while we are capable of all of this, we can also rise to amazing heights in the service of others. For two weeks I had the good fortune to have a respite from hard labor while I was assigned to work with a civilian German engineer who was surveying the landscape where future roads would be built. He saw the terrible conditions I was living under and decided to help. Everyday he hid food for me from the SS kitchen where he ate lunch. Chicken, milk, rice, and cheese left under a bench in the back corner of a barracks. He cared, he took a risk, and he saved my life. Please remember him.

And finally, remember that no one should be judged because of his or her nationality, religion or race. We were sent to the camps because propaganda was believed, individuality was erased, and hate was rampant. When asked if I am angry with Germans, I think of the German engineer, and know that individuals must be judged by their own personal actions. If I can hold this as a guiding principle after what happened to my family and me, then you can, too.

Please take my memories as yours, share them, and carry them forward. It is by doing so that you can help keep the next generation from forgetting, and help fill the space that we survivors will leave behind when we are gone.

Thank you so much Gene for sharing this moving piece.  I will always remember!

Gene’s Daughter Jill Wrote a book about her family’s struggles in Auschwitz, ‘We Got the Water’.

Description of ‘We Got the Water by Jill Gabrielle Klein:water_cover_front-final-cropped


We Got the Water is the story of the Klein family: Herman and Bertha, and their three children, Lilly, Oli and sixteen-year-old Gabi. In the spring and summer of 1944, along with more than 400,000 other Hungarian Jews, they were forced from their homes, rounded up, and sent to Auschwitz. The Kleins were aboard one of the very first trains of this mass deportation.

Author Jill Gabrielle Klein follows her father, his sisters and their mother through Auschwitz and into slave labor camps in Poland and Germany, providing a narrative—both harrowing and inspirational—of resilience in the face of terror. As it charts the author’s personal quest to reconstruct the past, the book also documents the inexorable disappearance of living Holocaust survivors, whose first-person accounts illuminate this dark period and inscribe it in our collective memory.

About Jill Klein:Gene & Jill Klein


 Professor Jill Klein, Ph.D. is a social psychologist who is on the faculty of Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She and her father speak internationally to audiences on the topic of resilience.