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The Resource Family history of fear : a memoir, Agata Tuszyńska ; translated by Charles Ruas from the French of Jean-Yves Erhel

Family history of fear : a memoir, Agata Tuszyńska ; translated by Charles Ruas from the French of Jean-Yves Erhel

Creator
Author
Translator
Contributor
Summary
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 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 father, 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
Language
  • eng
  • pol
  • eng
Work
Publication
Edition
First American edition.
Extent
xi, 381 pages
Note
  • "This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Title page verso
  • "Originally published in Poland as Rodzinna Historia Leku by Wydawnictwo Literackie, Krakow, in 2005" -- copyright page
Isbn
9780375413704
Instance
Label
Family history of fear : a memoir
Title
Family history of fear
Title remainder
a memoir
Statement of responsibility
Agata Tuszyńska ; translated by Charles Ruas from the French of Jean-Yves Erhel
Creator
Contributor
Author
Author
Translator
Translator
Subject
Genre
Language
  • eng
  • pol
  • eng
Summary
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 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 father, 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
Member of
Biography type
individual biography
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Tuszyńska, Agata
Dewey number
929.2089/9240438
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
no index present
LC call number
DS134.72.T87
LC item number
A3 2016
Literary form
non fiction
http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorName
Ruas, Charles
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Tuszyńska, Agata
  • Tuszyński family
  • Jews
  • Warsaw (Poland)
Label
Family history of fear : a memoir, Agata Tuszyńska ; translated by Charles Ruas from the French of Jean-Yves Erhel
Instantiates
Publication
Note
  • "This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Title page verso
  • "Originally published in Poland as Rodzinna Historia Leku by Wydawnictwo Literackie, Krakow, in 2005" -- copyright page
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Control code
ocn914296352
Dimensions
24 cm
Edition
First American edition.
Extent
xi, 381 pages
Isbn
9780375413704
Lccn
2015020551
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
  • (Sirsi) o914296352
  • (OCoLC)914296352
  • (Sirsi) b14691632
Label
Family history of fear : a memoir, Agata Tuszyńska ; translated by Charles Ruas from the French of Jean-Yves Erhel
Publication
Note
  • "This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Title page verso
  • "Originally published in Poland as Rodzinna Historia Leku by Wydawnictwo Literackie, Krakow, in 2005" -- copyright page
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Control code
ocn914296352
Dimensions
24 cm
Edition
First American edition.
Extent
xi, 381 pages
Isbn
9780375413704
Lccn
2015020551
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
  • (Sirsi) o914296352
  • (OCoLC)914296352
  • (Sirsi) b14691632

Subject

Genre

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