Review
There have been so many novels written about the lives of Eastern European Jews during World War II that I've sometimes wondered how an author can possibly find a way to put a unique twist on the subject. Yet, remarkably, Ramona Ausubel has done just that - authored a book about a well-known, well-documented point in history and made it completely original.
No One is Here Except All of Us doesn't, for the most part, read like a Holocaust memoir. The villagers in Ausubel's story are dimly aware of the war raging around them and have heard rumors regarding the fate of other Jewish towns. They decide to do what their tribe has done for centuries when faced with persecution: start over somewhere new. This time, though, there's nowhere they can reach safely, and so they start over in place. One fateful Sabbath they decide that the next day will be the first day of all...
Beyond the Book
In a thoughtful and personal interview, BookBrowse reviewer Kim Kovacs talks with Ramona Ausubel, debut author of
No One is Here Except All of Us:
It seems like you hit a mental roadblock after researching your family history, mired in facts that wouldn't form into a novel. In an interview with Penguin you said that you "got closer to the truth once I put my notes away." Can you tell us more about that?
I had interviewed my grandmother, gathered photographs and letters and objects and spent time in the library doing research, but when I started to write, I felt...
