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Critics' Opinion:
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First Published:
Nov 2023, 304 pages
Paperback:
Oct 29, 2024, 320 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Kim Kovacs
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A heart-wrenching story of love and defiance set in the Warsaw Ghetto, based on the actual archives kept by those determined to have their stories survive World War II
A Read with Jenna Book Club Pick and named a Best Book of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews (Best Fiction Books of the Year & Best Historical Fiction of 2023)
On a November day in 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards, and await an uncertain fate. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising request: Will he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends, and neighbors. He learns about their childhoods and their daydreams, their passions and their fears, their desperate strategies for safety and survival. The stories form a portrait of endurance in a world where no choices are good ones.
One of the people Adam interviews is his flatmate Sala Wiskoff, who is stoic, determined, and funny—and married with two children. Over the months of their confinement, in the presence of her family, Adam and Sala fall in love. As they desperately carve out intimacy, their relationship feels both impossible and vital, their connection keeping them alive. But when Adam discovers a possible escape from the Ghetto, he is faced with an unbearable choice: Whom can he save, and at what cost?
Inspired by the testimony-gathering project with the code name Oneg Shabbat, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Grodstein draws readers into the lives of people living on the edge. Told with immediacy and heart, We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a piercing story of love, determination, and sacrifice for the many fans of literary World War II fiction such as Kristin Harmel's The Book of Lost Names and Lauren Fox's Send for Me.
Seventeen
The next evening, Filip strutted into the apartment with two large bags of chicken feet that he had traded for somewhere on the outside. He had recently turned twelve and was starting to grow; perhaps his prosperity as a trader had provided him with the requisite calories for a proper growth spurt, or perhaps the human body would do what it was designed to do even in the most absurd of circumstances. Either way, he was a good ten centimeters taller than he'd been when we'd met, and his shoulders had started to broaden. His voice was changing too, becoming deeper. I noticed it especially when he practiced his English with me. In English, he sounded almost like a man.
"I'll trade you four feet for next week's lesson," I said. (The going price for English lessons was three zloty or, lately, whatever the children's families could spare; I had no idea what the going rate was for chicken feet, since chicken was not legal for purchase in the ghetto.)
"I risked my life for these,...
Here are some of the comments posted about We Must Not Think of Ourselves.
You can see the full discussion here.
Have you ever been in a situation where every one of your options is a compromise, that there is no way to do right by everyone?
Absolutely! My role as a wife, mother, neighbor, citizen all require compromise. Some more, some less. Finding a neutral ground that doesn't require a surrender of anyone's deep moral guidelines for life can be very challenging. ... - robinsb
Henryk calls Adam a realist, adding that "if the world were only made of realists the world would never change." Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
I try to be a realist, but also feel that I try to see the bright side of what is real! Optimism = hope to me, and without that hope, I think that even more Jews would have lost their lives. - beckys
How did you feel about Henryk Duda, Kasia's father? Did he love Adam, or did he just want to use him for his own ends?
I think that Henryk might have cared for Adam at one time, and knew that he made his daughter very happy, but as the war progressed and things got tough, I think he just looked at Adam as a financial opportunity and one that could help him achieve ... - beckys
If Kasia were alive, do you think she would have accompanied Adam to the ghetto? Would they have been able to escape before the war?
I think Adam would have done everything possible to save her from the ghetto, including leaving Poland. Failing that, I believe she would have accompanied him, especially since they believed it was short term and had no idea how long and how bad the ... - Elizabeth Marie
In what ways did this story broaden your understanding of life during the Holocaust?
I have read many books about the holocaust and it seems each one comes with an individualized story and circumstance. This one was interesting to me because of the personal histories of the people living in the ghetto and the people trying to ... - beckys
Much of what the narration conveys is rather mundane—a beleaguered population making the best of an increasingly intolerable situation—particularly in the novel's first half. Through interviews we learn how the housewives and children around him cope with such deprivation. We read about people's former lives, their desires and dreams, their loves, and their hopes for a better future. These characters leap off the page; each is unique and beautifully drawn, with their own perspective on their ordeal. These sections read like actual transcripts, with realistic digressions and segues. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes harrowing, the stories form a beautiful mosaic describing the lives of those trapped in the Ghetto...continued
Full Review
(616 words)
(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Lauren Fox, New York Times bestselling author of Send for Me
In We Must Not Think of Ourselves, Lauren Grodstein writes with such a blazing commitment to the truth of the Warsaw Ghetto that sometimes I had to stop reading and catch my breath. But in the midst of the brutality, she clears a path for the parallel stories of love and decency. Make no mistake: this is a heartbreaking portrait of a dark moment. But this novel shimmers with light. Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of One Two Three
We Must Not Think of Ourselves is one of those rare books—beautifully written, seamlessly constructed, quietly devastating—that manages to tell an old story in a new way with no pyrotechnics beyond perfect storytelling, including an ending that will stay with me always. It is far and away my favorite novel of the year, of many years, and I know I will be recommending it to readers forevermore. Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Circe and The Song of Achilles
This book is a masterpiece: profound, gripping, urgent, and beautiful. In its clear-eyed and devastating portrait of the past, Grodstein invites us into the present; to bear witness to the lives that have come before us, while finding meaning and courage for our own.
Lauren Grodstein's novel We Must Not Think of Ourselves was inspired by the Oneg Shabbat Project, a World War II archive compiled and hidden by the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto. Established and run by Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum, the archive contained a wide variety of documents recording daily life in the Ghetto.
Ringelblum was born in Buczacz, Poland (now part of Ukraine) in 1900, and after graduating from Warsaw University he taught high school history. He was known as an expert on the history of Poland's Jewish community from the late Middle Ages onward and was a frequent contributor of scholarly articles on the subject.
He was also politically and socially active. As a young man he joined Po'alei Zion Left, a Marxist-Zionist ...
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