Publication Date: August 4, 2020
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
With the cloud of the Holocaust still looming over them, twin sisters Bronka and Johanna Lubinski and their parents arrive in the US from a Displaced PersonsCamp, hoping to build a new life.
Soon after their arrival, however, a neighbor is arrested by the FBI for suspected involvement in the Rosenberg spy case―and they find themselves in the midst of one of the most notorious court cases of theRed Scare. In the years after WWII, they experience the difficulties of adjusting to American culture, as well as the burgeoning fear of the Cold War.
Years later, the discovery of a former
Nazi hiding in their community brings the Holocaustout of the shadows. As the
girls get older, they start to wonder about their parents’ pasts,and they begin
to demand answers. But it soon becomes clear that those memories will be more
difficult and painful to uncover than they could have anticipated.
Poignant and haunting, The Takeaway Men
explores the impact of immigration, identity, prejudice, secrets, and lies on
parents and children in mid-twentieth-century America.
THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
2 sisters
2 decades
2 continents
The story began in Kielce, Poland August of 1942 where Edita smuggles Jewish children out of the Ghetto and hides Jewish adults in their attic unbeknownst to her father, a Polish policemen who supported the Nazis against the Jews.
The story revolves around twin sisters Johanna and Bronka who immigrated to the states from Poland in 1951 to Bellerose, New York.
This Historical Fiction writing by Ain was easy to read, well researched and followed the story of this family with rich and intricate detail of the neighborhood, the people, the food, the shops and day to day goings-on. I was truly transported to that time and the neighborhood filled with refugees from all over including the Chinese, Italian, and Irish as well as Jewish refugees from Europe.
Ain’s debut novel highlights the saga of the survivors post war illuminating their adjustment to the American culture with sensitivity and compassion. This was a powerful novel that follows a family and what they went through post the horrors of Holocaust as survivors, and navigating the Jewish American landscape in mid -twentieth-century America.
This was an exceptional read not to be missed.
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:
Meryl Ain embarked on The Living Memories Project after she lost both her father and mother within a year-and-a-half. She enlisted the support of her husband, Stewart Ain, and her brother, Arthur Fischman, and together they interviewed 32 people about how they transformed their grief into meaningful action and creative endeavors.
Meryl is a a freelance writer specializing in issues related to families, education, parenting, children, and overcoming grief and loss. She has contributed to Huffington Post, MariaShriver.com, Newsday, the New York Jewish Week and The New York Times.
Meryl holds a BA from Queens College, a MA from Columbia University Teachers College, and an Ed.D. from Hofstra University. She began her career in education as a social studies teacher before she became an administrator. She and her husband live on Long Island and have three sons, three daughters-in-law and three grandchildren.
Meryl Ain's articles and essays have appeared in Huffington Post, The Jewish Week, The New York Times, and Newsday, and at MariaShriver.com, among other outlets. In 2014, she co authored the award-winning book The Living Memories Project: Legacies That Last, and in 2016 she wrote a companion workbook, My Living Memories Project Journal.
She is both a student and teacher of history, as well as a school administrator and researcher. She holds a BA from Queens College, an MA from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an EdD
from Hofstra University. She lives in New York with her husband, Stewart. They have three married sons and six grandchildren. This is her first novel.
