—Glamour, “Best Books of 2017”
LISTEN to today's show featuring Georgia Hunter!
In 2008 Georgia Hunter began searching her family’s incredible story, pouring over records in the Holocaust Museum’s libraries and Red Cross databases, and traveling to Poland, France, and beyond. Every significant movement, incarceration, brush with death, and escape described in the book actually happened. The trajectories of her grandfather, his siblings, and his parents—are based on solid facts uncovered through primary sources such as oral histories, letters, and records that she consulted during her seven years of research. Once she had uncovered the incredible story, she turned to fiction to make it come alive.
Of the 30,000 Jews who lived in Radom, Poland at the start of World War II, fewer than 300 survived. Hunter’s searing emotional debut novel, WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES, is the story of a Jewish family in Radom ripped away from each other at the start of the war, and their extraordinary journey back to each other.
During an interview, Georgia Hunter answers the following:
· WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES is based on your grandfather’s life story. What first inspired you to research and record your family history?
· Oral history is an incredibly important part of Holocaust research and awareness initiatives. How much of WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES is based on stories passed down to you?
· What other resources did you use to track down your family’s story?
· Did you travel to any of the places you write about?
· What made you decide to write this story as a novel? What was most important to you to get right?
· The book’s title hints at the characters’ fates even before one starts the book. What made you decide to use that as the title?
· Was your grandfather also a composer? Do any of the songs Addy wrote in the novel exist in real life?
WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES was born of Hunter’s personal drive to uncover her family’s staggering history. It is the story of a family determined to persevere in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, and a story that will stay with you long after the last page is turned.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES is Georgia Hunter’s first novel. Hunter’s blog, weweretheluckyones.com, offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the extensive research this project has entailed. She lives in Connecticut.
Twitter: @Georgia_Hunter
Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive—and to reunite—We Were the Lucky Ones is a sweeping novel spanning six years and five continents and a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds
“Love in the face of global adversity? It couldn’t be more timely.” —Glamour
It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety.
As one sibling is forced into exile, another attempts to flee the continent, while others struggle to escape certain death, either by working grueling hours on empty stomachs in the factories of the ghetto or by hiding as gentiles in plain sight. Driven by an unwavering will to survive and by the fear that they may never see one another again, the Kurcs must rely on hope, ingenuity, and inner strength to persevere.
An extraordinary, propulsive novel, We Were the Lucky Ones demonstrates how in the face of the twentieth century’s darkest moment, the human spirit can endure and even thrive.SEE LESSABOUT WE WERE THE LUCKY ONESInspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive—and to reunite—We Were the Lucky Ones is a sweeping novel spanning six years and five continents and a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds
“Love in the face of global adversity? It couldn’t be more timely.” —Glamour
It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety.
As one sibling is forced into exile, another attempts to flee the continent, while others struggle to escape certain death, either by working grueling hours on empty stomachs in the factories of the ghetto or by hiding as gentiles in plain sight. Driven by an unwavering will to survive and by the fear that they may never see one another again, the Kurcs must rely on hope, ingenuity, and inner strength to persevere.
An extraordinary, propulsive novel, We Were the Lucky Ones demonstrates how in the face of the twentieth century’s darkest moment, the human spirit can endure and even thrive.SEE LESSInspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive—and to reunite—We Were the Lucky Ones is a sweeping novel spanning six years and five continents and a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds
“Love in the face of global adversity? It couldn’t be more timely.” —Glamour
It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety.
As one sibling is forced into exile, another attempts to flee the continent, while others struggle to escape certain death, either by working grueling hours on empty stomachs in the factories of the ghetto or by hiding as gentiles in plain sight. Driven by an unwavering will to survive and by the fear that they may never see one another again, the Kurcs must rely on hope, ingenuity, and inner strength to persevere.
An extraordinary, propulsive novel, We Were the Lucky Ones demonstrates how in the face of the twentieth century’s darkest moment, the human spirit can endure and even thrive.SEE LESS
