Here is first of a series about Pat Black Gould soon to be published book about a Jewish girl hiding in a monastery and about my novel ” Why Didn’t They Leave? We are recording the series in honour of the Holocaust remembrance day on 27th January Here is one of Pat’s book illustrations. Continue reading Series of videos about 2 very different books
This my last blog in 2021. It is a sad one and it summarises my Autumn. I am making a full stop. My novel “ Why didn’t they leave?” is about the painful 20th century history, The Holocaust, emigration, totalitarian system. I am now writing a different book, not about Holocaust. It might even be funny. My son bought an old book in a second-hand … Continue reading It will never happen again, right? We will not allow it.
This week, my family held a ceremony to mark the installation of a Stolpersteine in the pavement in front of the house from where my family was deported to Theresienstadt in 1943. The Stolpersteine, which literally means ‘stumbling block’ in German, was an idea of a German artist Gunter Demnig who wanted people to discover the last address of those deported by the Nazis by … Continue reading Stolpersteine
I am in Prague. Tomorrow, we are going to lay Stolpersteine http://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/home/ in front of the house in Prague where my family lived before they were deported by the Nazis to a concentration camp. There will be the 5th generation there, my grandchildren. I will blog about that, of course, but I’d like to talk about a play I saw in London the evening before … Continue reading The play Leopoldstadt and coping with traumatic family past.
It’s all happening, official British launching of my book, my BBC Radio 4 interview. On 28th September, my book will officially be published in th UK. There is also a possibility to review the book on the publisher’s site. The book has already been available in the USA since 5th August. https://www.bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/book/288/Why%20Didn’t%20They%20Leave%3F/ So whoever is kind enough to want to review my book on Amazon, … Continue reading Exciting week -book and a BBC Radio 4 Interview
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 … Continue reading Some readers like my novel, will my relatives like it, too?
It is exactly one month before my novel’ official publishing day. 28th September. The book is already available in paperback, the e-book doesn’t come for another month. Some of my friends and family already have my paperbacks from the author’s copies I received. I am nervous. Suddenly I have a crazy idea that it might be a good book. Will other people think so? This … Continue reading When you read my book after 28th September, if you like it could you review it? Please?
1918-1945 Czechoslovakia became independent after the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918 when the WW1 finished. It used to be an independent kingdom of Bohemia but despite still keeping the name, it was ruled by the Austrians since 1620. Czechoslovakia after 1918 was a prosperous democratic republic. Prague had a long history of Jewish inhabitants, and the Old New Synagogue in Prague , built … Continue reading A simple summary of the historical background of my novel.
It is Mother’s Day in the USA. Not here, but my family never celebrated it anyway. However, all those entries on FB made me think about my mum. A Holocaust survivor, she was 18 when the war finished, and found out that her father and brother, as well as many other relatives have been killed. She managed remarkably to jump 5 grades to graduate with … Continue reading I loved my mother, although I didn’t know it.
This is a very interesting article https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/06/guardian-200-ad-that-saved-jewish-father-from-nazis More refugee stories. And kind people helping. Continue reading We always need kind people
Eva Hnizdo 