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 ]
With Barack Obama's memoir out from Viking on Tuesday (17th November), PRH's UK media campaign will kick off this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-13 00:35:10 UTC ]
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She tried her hand at fiction, to no avail. So she wrote a memoir about a circle of strangers instead. Continue reading at The New York Times
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It was announced earlier today that MGM is teaming with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, and director Kamilah Forbes on a film adaptation of National Book Award-winner Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2019 bestselling novel, The Water Dancer. Coates’ debut novel tells the story of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-11 15:33:22 UTC ]
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While books about the outgoing US president have been bestsellers for the last four years, Trump might be a step too far for some publishersFact-checkers are quaking in their boots amid reports that Donald Trump could be being “courted for a new tome on his time in the White House”. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 14:24:45 UTC ]
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The painter known to many as Lucian Freud's one-time muse writes of her own muse, her mother, and provers herself a masterful writer as well. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-10 18:28:13 UTC ]
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Kamala Harris-related books have seen a sharp increase in popularity post-Biden/Harris presidential win. On Sunday, a whopping four books on Amazon’s Top 10 bestsellers list were either about or penned by the vice president-elect. The books in question: Harris’s memoir The Truths We Hold: An... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-10 17:37:24 UTC ]
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In “This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing,” Jacqueline Winspear recalls her upbringing in the British countryside. Continue reading at The Washington Post
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An excerpt from “Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood,” by Christa Parravani Continue reading at The New York Times
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A young woman’s diagnosis is only the beginning of the mystery in “Lightning Flowers.” As Katherine E. Standefer tried to make sense of her heart condition, her conscience sent her on a trip across the world. Continue reading at The New York Times
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Yesterday, I attended a virtual book club where Heavy: An American Memoir was being read. When I clicked the link to join the Zoom, I saw the faces, necks, and shoulders of seven beautiful pixelated Black women from as far west as Las Vegas and as far east as Long Island. I assumed from their... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-10 09:49:30 UTC ]
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The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: * Danielle Evans (The Office of Historical Corrections) Éireann Lorsung (The Century) Christa Parravani (Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-10 09:48:28 UTC ]
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Tinder Press has won at auction Christina Patterson’s next book, Outside, the Sky is Blue: A Memoir of Faith, Hope and Loss. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-09 23:01:40 UTC ]
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“The Babur Nama is an oddly modern text, almost Proustian in its self-awareness.” William Dalrymple on the 16th-century memoir far ahead of its time. | Lit Hub Biography “We have had no truth and reconciliation process.” On the renaissance of American white supremacy, a conversation with Isaac... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-07 12:30:24 UTC ]
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Agnès Poirier offers a firsthand account of the 2019 fire along with the cathedral’s history. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-06 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Don’t expect the usual bromides about hard work and resilience in “One Life.” The soccer star’s memoir gets into her political awakening as much as it does her sports career. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-11-06 10:00:28 UTC ]
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Monoray, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, has acquired Where Did I Go Right?: How The Left Lost Me by comedian and writer Geoff Norcott. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 03:36:21 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has snapped up an “exquisite” memoir about the challenges facing gay men today from acclaimed poet and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year shortlistee Seán Hewitt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 07:03:12 UTC ]
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Bonnier Books UK’s new literary imprint Manilla Press has acquired a "powerful memoir" from debut author Bexy Cameron exploring her childhood in the notorious cult Children of God. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-02 00:29:45 UTC ]
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FEW WRITERS MANAGE to capture the essence of the California that exists beyond the images typically offered up by film and television — palm trees, beaches, gridlock, Hollywood, Kardashians; images the rest of the country seems so willing to accept about us “out here.” Kendra Atleework’s new... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-11-01 18:00:10 UTC ]
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Journalist Maria Hinojosa talks about her memoir "Once I Was You," and how a childhood trauma triggered her interest in immigration reporting. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-31 16:00:33 UTC ]
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