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.
My first book, We Were the Lucky Ones, was inspired by a family reunion in 2000 that opened my eyes to the astounding, untold wartime stories of my grandfather, his parents and his siblings. In 2008, I set off to research and record this piece of my ancestry and a decade later, We Were the Lucky Ones was born. The book has been published in over twenty languages and has been adapted for television by Hulu as an eight-part limited series.
My second book, One Good Thing, is a historical novel set…
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