What do readers think of I Want You to Know We're Still Here by Esther Safran Foer? Write your own review.

This book was obviously well researched and produced from a place of deep familial love. I, personally, found it was a little slow in the beginning and dogged by repetition. As I went from mid-book to the end, the momentum picked up and I felt more connected. I was curious about the pictures of the family from the DP camps. It appeared the people in the pictures were well dressed and had baby carriages. This seemed contrary to the descriptions of food and basic needs deprivation. Could the pictures be from another time? The ending was beautifully written and provided perfect closure for what I am sure was a most emotional journey for the writer. Kudos to her for her tenacity in chronicling her family history.

[Editor's note: The author addresses the disconnect in this picture on the previous page (p. 57): “...you see what you want to see, or maybe what you need to see, in a photograph… and there are my parents, fashionably dressed…seated at an outdoor picnic…Look closer. In the background there are watchtowers, run-down barracks, and a barbed-wire fence."]

I wanted to like this book so much. The title was so intriguing and the photo on the cover made me want to start reading immediately. But that is where the attraction ended. Many times throughout the book it seemed more like a plug for her two sons books than the story of holocaust survivors. The story seemed to jump all over the place and felt disjointed and repetitive. I do credit the enormous amount of research and history behind it but wish it were better written.