The TBZ Book Club provides a setting in which TBZ members come together to discuss fiction and non-fiction books with Jewish themes. Monthly meetings on Sunday evenings at TBZ feature lively discussions of books by or about Jewish people, alternating fiction and non-fiction selections. You may find yourself reading books you never knew about or thought to read and meeting other book lovers! Please join us at any time during the year by contacting the Coordinator at tbzbookclub@tbzbrookline.org
September 11 – I Want You to Know We’re Still Here by Esther Safran Foer (NF) (Discussion facilitated by Hilda)
A riveting memoir of family, the Holocaust, and the search for truth
Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married, and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching.
So when Esther’s mother casually mentions an astonishing revelation–that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust–Esther resolves to find out who they were, and how her father survived. Armed with only a black-and-white photo and a hand-drawn map, she travels to Ukraine, determined to find the shtetl where her father hid during the war. What she finds reshapes her identity and gives her the opportunity to finally mourn.
I Want You to Know We’re Still Here is the poignant and deeply moving story not only of Esther’s journey but of four generations living in the shadow of the Holocaust. They are four generations of survivors, storytellers, and memory keepers, determined not just to keep the past alive but to imbue the present with life and more life.
Upcoming Meeting Date: October 2