I can’t wait for my readers to review the book on Amazon and Goodreads, but because of Amazon’s rules it can’t be before 28th September, and even then people shouldn’t rush because apparently when too many people try to review the book on the same day, Amazon gets suspicious. So I have to be patient. Not my forte!

My publisher received these 3 wonderful short comments about my novel from 3 writers I asked for review.

 With meticulous detail, heartwrenching scenes like “ . . . marching us from Auschwitz to Loslau,” sear onto the page.

 From police informers to the “Velvet Revolution,” Hnizdo offers answers through her characters’ actions as to why some

chose to remain in their homeland and others fled. A story filled with history and heartache . . . survival and hope.”

—Julie Maloney, author and founder/director of Women Reading Aloud

“Zuzana is haunted by the choices that her family made during the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and later during the Communist regime. Her discoveries make for a compelling story of loyalty, love, and courage.”

 Jacqueline Sheehan author

Eva Hnizdo has turned her own story into a gripping work of fiction that follows a secular Czech Jewish family’s fortunes during World War Two through communism to a multi-cultural life in Britain. Her book says much about prejudice and tolerance, survivors’ guilt and the emotional challenges of motherhood, all through the voice of her extrovert and sexy heroine. 

Brigid Grauman author

And this week, I had a lovely note from a fellow writer from New York :

Just finished your book and wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it.  

As someone who often writes about Holocaust survivors and their children, I know how difficult it can be to handle this material in a sensitive manner that appeals to all types of readers–Jewish, non-Jewish, and people without personal involvement in this story.

You really pulled it off.

And now I wonder what my relatives will say when they read my novel, full of real family stories they know.

I just had a zoom call with a 95-year-old relative who lives in New Rochelle. She emigrated age 12 with her parents from Prague to New York in 1938. We spoke for an hour. She just got my book and started to read it. But we spoke about the past, and she told me many stories of what happened to various members of my family. She is smart, with a sense of humour, pleasure to  talk to.

She told me many things I didn’t know. Maybe I should write another book…

My novel made my relatives closer; we communicate more. In the beginning, I was scared and wrote them an apologetic email:

This is what I wrote

What I would like to tell you that is that  it is fiction, but I used and fictionalised many family stories.

You will recognise those stories, and I hope you won’t be angry about my interpretations and changes. I repeat, the book is fiction.

Many of you helped me by telling me about the past. Thank you!

The dedication of my book is :

I would like to dedicate this novel to my many relatives whom I never met because they were killed by the Nazis. 

This letter is to ask you , if you read my book, to forgive me if you feel I misinterpreted the past.

It is a novel, nothing more.

Love Eva Hnizdo

The relative I spoke to today is the Miriam in my book, her stories, but I made Miriam an only child, and the real one has a brother. He didn’t mind, he’s reading my book at the moment, too.

I am curious what they will say.

Well, they can’t get angry IT IS FICTION !

The picture is an old photo of my family before the war, many of them were later  killed by the Nazis.