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.
“We were marched from the ghetto to Plaszow. Children were not allowed, but some people smuggled them in big ruck sacks. When the Gestapo saw them, they said they’d set up a nursery in the camp. Two weeks later, an open lorry with the children drove off and was never seen again. And that’s how those parents lost their children, with a trick that they’d be looked after.” 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.
Children and the elderly weren’t allowed to survive at camp
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
A new book, Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge from Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic by Simon Winchester looks at how we transfer knowledge without quite saying what knowledge is. However, reviewing the book for The New York Times, Peter Sagal (host of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me), says “one workable definition night be: information that gives pleasure, arouses curiosity and widens, if only by a small fraction, one’s appreciation of the vast world beyond one’s immediate vision.” My maternal grandmother Mindel used to say (in Yiddish) whenever she learned something new, “I’m glad I didn’t die yesterday or I wouldn’t have known that.” So, Sagal’s apt definition is consistent with the Mindel Moments I share in my monthly ASE Writer Newsletter. (Want to get the newsletter? Email me via CONTACT US and I’ll add you to the list.) I delight in the initial discovery (gives pleasure) and do research to learn more (arouses curiosity). Even the smallest tidbit triggers the “Wow!” factor (widens appreciation). I would add that knowledge is more than cognitive (or intellectual). Knowledge can also be emotional, spiritual, esthetic, sensory, somatic, and so on. I’m grateful that the world’s knowledge exceeds what I can learn in one lifetime. Mindel possessed more than knowledge; my grandmother also had wisdom.
Knowledge takes may forms, can be transmitted in multiple ways, and elicits many reactions
My Amazon and Goodreads review of Chicken Dinner News by Jeff Billington (Rating 5) – To Flee or Not To Flee?Chicken Dinner News by Jeff Billington is a small tale that poses questions as big and existential as Hamlet’s “To be or not to be?” What makes a life meaningful? How do we contribute to progress while honoring the past? What does it mean to love not just one person but an entire place? After the death of a grandfather he barely knew, Californian Ryan Shipley finds himself the owner of a newspaper in a dying Missouri town, farmland just outside the town, and half the stately old buildings — all decaying — in the town itself. Taking a leave from his job as a copy editor, Ryan heads to White Oak City to sell it all, leave the family history behind, and return to his “real” life in Los Angeles. Instead he finds himself torn between escaping and staying, enamored by the town’s charms (albeit irritated by its prejudices), awed by images of its erstwhile grandeur, and boosted by his own abilities to write, edit, and raise the level of the paper, heretofore a vehicle for reporting news about community events, such as chicken dinners (hence the title). Throw in a romance, a legacy to live up to, and people hoping Ryan will be their savior, and you have the struggle at the heart of this heartfelt novel. Billington persuades readers to slow down and linger in an evocative setting with characters who defy stereotypes. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Billington’s talent for crafting mini-dramas that illuminate meta-issues. Chicken Dinner News invites readers to assess the value of their own communities, regardless of size, and establish their place in it.
Taking big steps to help a small town survive
Why writers read: “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” – Walt Disney
When Leon Bass, a Black American, joined the Army to fight Nazis, he began to question racism back home. Horrified by the “walking dead” he saw at Buchenwald, he realized German Master Race theory was like U.S. white supremacy. Years later, now with a doctorate in history, Bass was appalled by students’ ignorance about the Holocaust. He traveled the country, warning that racism could drive a society to inhuman extremes. While the U.S. failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution, history shows some courageous Americans spoke out and saved lives. 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.
Leon Bass, liberator and educator
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn before the Nazi slaughter begins
“After Nazis confiscated my father’s store, we fled to the Philippines where there was a community of 1,200 Jewish refugees. My father became a peddler; my mother sewed dresses, aprons, and baby clothes for him to sell. We survived the Japanese occupation and the brutal battle between Japan and the U.S. over Manila.” Read about two Holocaust survivors in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
The Philippines saved 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
Young newlyweds Roswell and Marjorie McClelland were ordinary Americans who took extraordinary action during the Holocaust to save victims of Nazi persecution. Well-educated, they could have earned a good living while staying safe at home. Instead they volunteered with American Friends Service Committee. One step ahead of the Nazis, they moved from Italy to France to Switzerland to assist refugees trying to escape. The exact number they rescued is unknown, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds. While the U.S. failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution, history shows some courageous Americans helped to save lives. 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.
Quakers Roswell & Marjorie McClelland helped hundreds of refugees escape the Nazis
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn before the Nazi slaughter begins
My Amazon and Goodreads review of Old Babes in the Wood: Stories by Margaret Atwood (Rating 5) – She (We) Ain’t Dead Yet. Margaret Atwood’s story collection Old Babes in the Wood is rich with the insights this author has bestowed on readers for decades. My favorites comprise the sections that bracket the book, in which the recently widowed Nell recalls her long marriage to Tig. The writing is poignant. Yet, in characteristic Atwood fashion, grief’s bellyaches are tempered with memory’s belly laughs: oddball friends, quirky routines, off-kilter misunderstandings. The pair are as predictable as any old married couple, yet they surprise us and one another with their secrets. Even those discovered posthumously. Tig is dead, (or as Nell says, unable to complete the thought, “Now that Tig.”), yet he is still very much present. And, Atwood reminds us, so is that old babe, Nell. She muses on widowhood: how to remain relevant, not relegated to the dust bin; to see meandering minds as sane reflections of a nonlinear world, not signs of a brain gone bonkers. The Handmaid’s Tale aside, I prefer Atwood’s reality stories to her speculative fiction, but for readers who gravitate to the latter, there is plenty in the book’s middle section to satisfy them, notably an amusing but cautionary tale of a communication impasse with the aliens who rescue us after we’ve destroyed our own planet. And for those who relish the wit with which Atwood punctures (especially male) authority, she offers a gut-busting pseudo-feminist treatise on witches and other flying female villains. Atwood’s stories are often deceptively simple but they reverberate with deeper meaning. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I know the effort expended to make hard-earned prose appear easy on the page. Atwood works hard, and while we play with her words, we willing work hard to wrest the most out of them. Old Babes in the Wood immerses readers in the thoughts, feelings, and sensations of aging. The woods are perilous, the past’s undergrowth lurks to trip us up. Yet a lush canopy ahead lures us forward. Atwood prods us on. Like the author, we ain’t dead yet!
Atwood at her poignant and witty best
Why writers read: “The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.” – Stephen King
“On Kristallnacht, a rampaging mob threw our infant son off the second-story balcony. Fortunately, our downstairs neighbors caught him and his nanny hid him until he could be sent to England on a Kindertransport. We emigrated to Palestine and were reunited with our son after the war.” 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.
Rampaging mobs destroyed Jewish homes and businesses on Kristallnacht
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
Thanks to all the locals who came to Ann Arbor’s Schuler Books to hear me read from my novel One Person’s Loss on July 19th. There was an animated exchange with audience members and between me and my co-presenter Beth Kirschner, who read from her book Copper Divide. Thanks to Schuler Books for hosting the event. Wherever you live, please support your independent book store.
Ann S. Epstein and Beth Kirschner read and discuss their historical novels at Ann Arbor’s Schuler Books
More of my microfiction was published in 50 Give or Take on July 20, 2023. Read “The Last Time” for a mini-dose of philosophy. It’s not the first time, or the last time, I’ve been included in this unique online daily magazine. (Why writers write: “A word after a word after a word is power.” – Margaret Atwood)
