Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
“My sister was ill and weak. I told her, ‘You must try to walk, you must.’ I stood her up and put one foot in front of the other, twice a day, until she was able to walk on her own again. To this day, she swears that without me, she wouldn’t have survived.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
My Goodreads and Amazon review of Have You Eaten Rice Today? by Apple Gidley (Rating 5) – Complex and Captivating. Apple Gidley’s novel, Have You Eaten Rice Today?, weaves history, adventure, and romance into one captivating tale. Underlying the drama is a lesson in Malaysia’s fight for independence, a bloody struggle that most westerners know little about. Readers are immersed in the enervating heat and ever-present buzz of the ulu, the jungle, then dropped into the cool elegance of Britain’s colonial outposts. It is at one of these establishments that Simon, a former British soldier and now cool intelligence gatherer, meets Dee, a young and feisty Australian nurse, igniting a spark that decades and oceans apart cannot cool. Two generations later we meet Max, Simon’s adoring grandson, an aspiring writer, and Jessica, Dee’s granddaughter, an emergency room physician and her grandmother’s temperamental match. What happens next (no spoilers) is a physically and emotionally challenging journey as inevitable as the promise of redemption. A writer of historical fiction myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Gidley’s ability to blend fact and invention in just the right proportions. Have You Eaten Rice Today? transports readers to another time and place. Required carry-on: Minds and hearts.
U.S. leaders, including FDR, dismissed a proposal to bomb Auschwitz. They said the Germans would just rebuild the concentration camp elsewhere. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“When asked our line of work, I answered carpenter; my father replied bricklayer. Carpenters were transferred to another camp. My father told me, ‘Though I must stay here, you have an obligation to go and save yourself.’ I never saw him again.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“Throughout October 1941, we received instructions each time a street in the ghetto would be evacuated to the work camps. To avoid deportation, we moved to other streets, but knew our turn would come soon. The night before, Mom bought two liters of milk and boiled them in a large pot. In the camps later, suffering from starvation, the memory of hot milk accompanied us with longing.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Thanks to the 35th annual Ann Arbor Jewish Book Festival for hosting an event with seven local authors on November 13, 2022, including me reading from One Person’s Loss. The receptive crowd of 60 attendees enjoyed free bagels and presentations on a diverse range of books. Read more about my book in NOVELS.
“If we had behaved like humane and generous people instead of complacent, cowardly ones, millions of Jews lying in Hitler’s crowded graveyards would be alive and safe” (Freda Kirchwey, Editor-in-Chief, The Nation). History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“Our transfer to Auschwitz was a terrible voyage under inhumane conditions. Among my most disturbing memories is when my mother gave the German soldiers her favors in exchange for half a glass of water.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“When the Nazis occupied Greece, a neighbor told a German soldier, ‘the daughter of our Jewish landlady is sleeping inside.’ I was arrested, still in my nightgown, and trucked to a camp. At the end of my ordeal, when I returned home, partisans offered to kill the neighbor but I said no. She had a two-and-a-half year old daughter, and I did not want the little girl to become an orphan.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
American Jews feared that if they urged the United States government to save more of their people during WW2, they would jeopardize their own already precarious place in society. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
