Jewish Life in Harbin, China: A Conversation with Jean Hoffmann Lewanda by Susan Blumberg-Kason Interviews [email protected] Tue, 01/07/2025 - 07:08 Shalama and Paul, Shanghai, 1950. Photo courtesy of Jean Hoffmann LewandaI met the author Jean Hoffmann Lewanda for lunch this past November in New Jersey, not too far from her home in suburban Philadelphia. Jean is the author of a new book, Shalama: My 96 Seasons in China (Earnshaw, 2024), the story of her mother’s childhood in Harbin, China, and young adult years in Shanghai. Jean’s first book, Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience, is an edited edition of her father’s memoir tracing his escape from Nazi-controlled Vienna to the safe shores of Shanghai in the late 1930s. Jean and I originally met online thanks to mutual friends who are historians and the authority on everything Old Shanghai. When we met in person in November, we spoke for hours about publishing Jewish Chinese stories. We expanded this conversation over email. Susan Blumberg-Kason: Thank you, Jean, for continuing our lovely conversation back in November. I don’t remember coming across other authors who have personal connections to both the old Shanghai and Harbin Jewish communities, each of which numbered in the thousands. Your mother was the daughter of Russian Jewish refugees, and your father was an Austrian Jewish refugee. Was it unusual for people in these... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2025-01-07 13:08:24 UTC ]
News and Events In this second episode of WLT Book Buzz, Laura Hernandez & Bunmi Ishola cover 42 books that connect with history. Find out what they read this summer and why these books should be on your shelf. Partition, World War II, the Tulsa Race... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-08-04 15:40:39 UTC ]
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In his memoir about being drafted into the Vietnam War, Jeff Danziger lays bare the futility and waste, as well as his own naiveté. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-08-03 20:35:22 UTC ]
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Gina Frangello had a suspicion there was a hunger to talk about women who break the rules. In advance of the release of Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism and Treason, she admits after some prodding, “I got more letters from women before this book came out than I ever received for... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-07-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Filmmaker Rodrigo Garcia brings his memoir about his father, Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, and mother, Mercedes Barcha, to the L.A. Times Book Club. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-07-29 20:18:15 UTC ]
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Buzzy new novels from Alexandra Kleeman, Leila Slimani and Stephen King, Billie Jean King’s memoir and plenty more. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-07-28 17:14:59 UTC ]
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With the help of a brilliant co-writer, a fully rounded picture may now emerge of the much-maligned royalNot since criminals were barred from profiting in this way can a publisher’s announcement of a memoir have united the British press in such disgust. Before that, even the gangster turned... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-25 07:00:45 UTC ]
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Emily St. John Mandel's 'Sea of Tranquility' goes to Knopf's Jenny Jackson, Prince Harry sold a currently untitled memoir to Random House, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Oscar-winner and all-around Renaissance woman Viola Davis is going to put her life story (so far) to paper. The actor will publish a memoir, Finding Me, with HarperOne. Davis will discuss her tumultuous childhood growing up in Rhode Island, including poverty and family strife, to her rise as a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-22 15:04:57 UTC ]
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Check out the latest pick from Reese's Book Club--a YA historical fiction set in the New South--and #ReadWithReese this summer. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-07-20 19:01:58 UTC ]
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Last week, Guto Harri, an anchor on GB News, in the United Kingdom, addressed a pressing news story: the racist abuse that Black English players faced following the final of the European soccer championships, which England lost, and the broader debate around the players’ practice of taking a... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-07-20 12:38:46 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House said the book, tentatively coming in 2022, would be “an intimate and heartfelt memoir from one of the most fascinating and influential global figures of our time.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-07-19 20:26:00 UTC ]
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Weidenfeld & Nicolson has acquired Sins of My Father: A Daughter, a Cult, a Wild Unravelling, a "dazzling" literary memoir from Lily Dunn about her attempt to unravel the mysteries of her late father's life. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-18 21:27:23 UTC ]
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Graeme Macrae Burnet was picked out by the literary spotlight when his second novel, His Bloody Project, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016. Published by small indie Saraband, it tells of a brutal triple murder in the remote Scottish Highlands in 1869 via witness statements, a memoir... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-16 17:48:55 UTC ]
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Culture Adrian Aguilera (Mexican, b. 1981) and Betelhem Makonnen (Ethiopian American, b. 1972), untitled (a flag for John Lewis or a green screen placeholder for an America that is yet to be), 2020 (installation view). Printed standard flag fabric,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-07-15 19:45:53 UTC ]
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Chicago’s memoir, “The Flowering,” looks back at the uphill battle to make it in the art world as a woman. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-07-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Author and journalist Ann Rinaldi, best known for her painstakingly researched YA historical fiction featuring female protagonists, died on July 1 in Branchburg, N.J.; she was 86. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes,' filmmaker Rodrigo Garcia writes about losing both parents — and the one event his renowned father couldn't record: his own death. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-07-07 16:19:08 UTC ]
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Essay Photos by Mai Al-Nakib / Courtesy of the author Civilizations, empires, dynasties, and monarchies end, leaving behind ruins of their fabled splendor. Traces of achievements become more or less decipherable, contingent upon the mercy of... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-07-07 12:48:10 UTC ]
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“Fox & I” is Catherine Raven’s memoir of her relationship with a bushy-tailed creature — no, not a dog. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-07-06 09:00:01 UTC ]
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Months before Andrea Constand’s memoir about the Cosby case and its aftermath was set to be published, a Pennsylvania Court overturned his conviction for assaulting her and released him. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-07-02 13:52:59 UTC ]
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