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Family History of Fear: A Memoir
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir Hardback - 2016

by Agata Tuszynska

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Reader reviews for Family History of Fear: A Memoir

From the publisher

"Family History of Fear has been in me for years. Along with this secret. From the instant I found out I was not who I thought I was."

Every family has its own history. Many families carry a tragic past. Like the author's mother, many Poles did not tell their children a complete story of their wartime exploits--of the underground Home Army, the tragedy of the Warsaw Uprising, the civil war against the Communists. Years had to pass before the stories of suffering and heroism could be told.

In Family History of Fear, Agata Tuszyńska, one of Poland's most admired poets and cultural historians, writes of the stories she heard from her mother about her secret past.

Tuszyńska, author of Vera Gran ("a book of extraordinary depth and power"--Richard Eder, The Boston Globe; "captivating"--Newsweek; "darkly absorbing, shrewd, and sharply etched"--Publishers Weekly), has written a powerful memoir about growing up after the Second World War in Communist Poland--blonde, blue-eyed, and Catholic.

The author was nineteen years old and living in Warsaw when her mother told her the truth--that she was Jewish--and began to tell her stories of the family's secret past in Poland. Tuszyńska, who grew up in a country beset by anti-Semitism, rarely hearing the word "Jew" (only from her Polish Catholic father, and then, always in derision), was unhinged, ashamed, and humiliated. The author writes of how she skillfully erased the truth within herself, refusing to admit the existence of her other half.

In this profoundly moving and resonant book, Tuszyńska investigates her past and writes of her journey to uncover her family's history during World War II--of her mother at age eight and her mother, entering the Warsaw Ghetto for two years as conditions grew more desperate, and finally escaping just before the uprising, and then living "hidden on the other side." She writes of her grandfather, one of five thousand Polish soldiers taken prisoner in 1939, becoming, later, the country's most famous radio sports announcer; and of her relatives and their mysterious pasts, as she tries to make sense of the hatred of Jews in her country. She writes of her discoveries and of her willingness to accept a radically different definition of self, reading the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer, opening up for her a world of Polish Jewry as he became her guide, and then writing about his life and work, circling her Jewish self in Lost Landscapes: In Search of Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Jews of Poland.

A beautiful and affecting book of discovery and acceptance; a searing, insightful portrait of Polish Jewish life, lived before and after Hitler's Third Reich.

Details

  • Title Family History of Fear: A Memoir
  • Author Agata Tuszynska
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition First American E
  • Pages 400
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Knopf Publishing Group, New York, New York
  • Publication date 2016
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780375413704 / 0375413707
  • Weight 1.5 lbs (0.68 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.4 x 5.9 x 1.5 in (23.88 x 14.99 x 3.81 cm)
  • Category Biography / Autobiography
  • Library of Congress subjects Jews - Poland, Biographies
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2015020551
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

About the author

AGATA TUSZYŃSKA is the author of six collections of internationally translated poetry, a biography of Isaac Bashevis Singer, Vera Gran: The Accused, and Bruno Schulz's Fianc'e. Tuszyńska is the recipient of the Polish PEN Club Ksawery Pruszyński Prize and a grant from the Fulbright Foundation. She lives in Toronto, Warsaw, and Paris.

www.agatatuszynska.com

CHARLES RUAS was born in China and graduated from Princeton University and the Sorbonne. He is a specialist in French and English comparative literature. He is the author of Conversations with American Writers, and has translated Michel Foucault's Death and the Labyrinth: Raymond Roussel as well as Pierre Assouline's An Artful Life: A Biography of D. H. Kahnweiler 1884-1979 and Herg' The Man Who Created Tintin. He was awarded by the French government the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. Ruas lives in New York City.

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Family History of Fear: A Memoir
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir

by Agata Tuszynska

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  • Hardback
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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780375413704 / 0375413707
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Knopf, May 2016. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good-. Shelfwear/edgewear/rubbing on covers and spine on dust jacket and boards; light denting along board edges; tips of spine bumped. ; 8.9 X 5.8 X 1.7 inches; 400 pages
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Family History of Fear : A Memoir
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Family History of Fear : A Memoir

by Ruas, Charles, Tuszynska, Agata

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Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Used - Very Good. Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.
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Family History of Fear : A Memoir
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Family History of Fear : A Memoir

by Charles Ruas; Agata Tuszynska

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Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016. Hardcover. Very Good. Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
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Family History of Fear : A Memoir
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Family History of Fear : A Memoir

by Ruas, Charles, Tuszynska, Agata

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Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Used - Very Good. Former library copy. Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir

by Tuszynska, Agata

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Knopf, 2016-05-17. hardcover. New. 6x1x9. Brand New small remainder mark and light shelf wear due to warehouse storage and handling
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir

by Tuszynska, Agata

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  • Hardback
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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780375413704 / 0375413707
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir

by Tuszynska, Agata

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780375413704 / 0375413707
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir

by Tuszynska, Agata

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780375413704 / 0375413707
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Family History of Fear: A Memoir
Stock photo: cover may vary

Family History of Fear: A Memoir

by Tuszynska, Agata

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  • Hardback
Condition
Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780375413704 / 0375413707
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hardcover. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
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