{"product_id":"irenas-gift-isbn-9780806543666","title":"Irena's Gift","description":"\u003cb\u003eA National Jewish Book Awards Finalist \u003cbr\u003eWINNER, ZIBBY AWARDS FOR BEST FAMILY DRAMA \u0026amp; BEST STORY OF OVERCOMING\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWeaving mystery, history and memoir, \u003ci\u003eIrena’s Gift \u003c\/i\u003eis the captivating account of one woman’s personal quest to uncover the unspoken and give voice to her family’s secret war-torn history.\u003cbr\u003eFrom the glittering concert halls of interbellum Warsaw to the vermin-infested prison where an SS officer is convinced to save a Jewish child’s life, to the author’s upbringing in a Christian home, this is a story of resilience, sacrifice, Jewish identity, intergenerational trauma, and the secrets we keep to protect ourselves and those we love. For readers of \u003ci\u003eWhen Time Stopped\u003c\/i\u003e by Ariana Neumann, \u003ci\u003eI Want You to Know We’re Still Here\u003c\/i\u003e by Esther Safran Foer, and \u003ci\u003eHouse of Glass\u003c\/i\u003e by Hadley Freeman.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eIrena’s Gift\u003c\/i\u003e interrogates the messy complexity of family, both its tenderness and nurture but also its corrosive anger and rejection.” —GERALDINE BROOKS, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“I'm here to find an SS officer,” I told the muscled man in uniform peering at me through the sentry window at the Berlin Archives.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“The man saved my mother,” I added in German, smiling at the guard almost apologetically.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1942, in German-occupied Poland, a Jewish baby girl was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in a backpack. That baby, Joasia, knew nothing about this extraordinary event until she was 32, when a letter arrived from a stranger. She also learned that the parents who raised her were actually her aunt and uncle. Joasia kept this knowledge hidden from her own daughter, Karen—until an innocent question unexpectedly revealed the truth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDetermined to understand the generational trauma that cloaked her family in silence, her own origins, and to help heal her mother’s pain, Karen set out to unearth decades of secrets. Piecing together a hidden history—from the glittering days of pre-war Poland to the little-known Radom Prison, where of 500 resistance members tortured, only 10 survived, her grandfather the only known Jewish one—Karen finds answers, yet not easy ones. As she exposes her family’s saga of love and betrayal, and the astounding negotiation with an SS officer who saved her mother’s life, Karen must reconcile the complicated truths behind human behavior.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIrena’s Gift\u003c\/i\u003e weaves together a mystery, history, and memoir to tell a story of sacrifice, impossible choices, impossible odds, and the way trauma reverberates throughout generations. Yet it is also a story of resilience and bravery, revealing how love and hope, too, can not only prevail through the worst imaginable circumstances, but resonate through time.\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eIrena’s Gift\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eIrena’s Gift\u003c\/i\u003e interrogates the messy complexity of family, both its tenderness and nurture but also its corrosive anger and rejection. It’s a disturbing investigation into the power of secrets to harm and to haunt.” —\u003cb\u003eGeraldine Brooks, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Using historical accounts, interviews and extensive archival research, Kirsten movingly reconstructs scenes of violence and heroism in the lives of everyday people, most notably the extraordinary women who came before her… This memoir is the result of Kirsten’s journey to break open the seal of suffering and rebuild her family’s Jewish identity after decades of silence. \u003ci\u003eIrena’s Gift\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautifully written testimony to the power of memoir to heal and recreate a family’s history.” \u003ci\u003e—\u003cb\u003eBookPage\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The author-narrator braids her own quest to unearth family history with the history itself. Her clear, direct prose is easy to read. The titular gift passed on by Irena is presumably her daughter’s life, purchased with jewels rescued by Dick and given by Alicja to a Ukrainian SS officer. But Kirsten’s own inheritance also includes intergenerational trauma. Much as she longs to be “the bridge between generations,” uniting her fractured family, she must also wrestle with her own emptiness and loneliness.” \u003ci\u003e—\u003cb\u003eThe Jewish Forward.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Karen Kirsten proves family stories and densities of human affection, when they ran up against that calamity we call the Holocaust, are as individual as fingerprints. News withheld, and what is passed on in doubt and affections, is always dramatic if it can be creatively depicted, and Karen Kirsten more than fulfils that task of narration and enchantment here.” \u003cb\u003e―Thomas Keneally, Booker Prize-winning author of\u003ci\u003e Schindler’s List\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Deeply moving and beautifully written, \u003ci\u003eIrena's Gift\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful unravelling of mysteries and memory. The journey of reconstruction and reconnection brilliantly evokes a lost era full of pain and love, as well as laying out the intricacies of intergenerational trauma. In addition to its value as Holocaust history, \u003ci\u003eIrena's Gift\u003c\/i\u003e deserves to become a classic of the memoir genre.” \u003cb\u003e―Lucy Adlington, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Dressmakers of Auschwitz\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Karen Kirsten’s debut is a harrowing family drama that spans the globe ― from Jewish ghettos patrolled by Nazis to Melbourne suburbs of poodles, kookaburras, and refugees. Kirsten goes on a quest to piece together her family’s secrets and finds much more than a tale of survival from history’s nightmare. She tells a story of disillusionment and faith. She reminds us that sometimes heroes can be repulsive, and sometimes lies keep families together. Irena's Gift is beautifully written, deeply researched and deeply felt.” \u003cb\u003e―Kevin Birmingham, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sinner and the Saint\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is one of the best second-generation Holocaust books ever published. I loved it and couldn't put it down.” \u003cb\u003e―Ariana Neumann, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times bestselling \u003c\/i\u003eauthor of \u003ci\u003eWhen Time Stopped\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An extraordinary story of how secrets and lies can tear a family apart.” \u003cb\u003e―Maya Lee, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Nazis Knew My Name\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eIrena’s Gift\u003c\/i\u003e, Kirsten brings to life the true and remarkable story of her family, including her mother and her grandmother, who like my Opa, sabotaged munitions at an armaments factory. This is a story of extraordinary women, survival and sacrifice. A must read.” \u003cb\u003e―Tara Moss, human rights and disability advocate, and author of \u003ci\u003eThe War Widow \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e The Ghosts of Paris\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eKaren Kirsten\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer and Holocaust educator who lectures on the topics of hatred and reconciliation around the world. Her work has appeared in Salon.com, \u003ci\u003eThe Week, The Jerusalem Post\u003c\/i\u003e, WIEZ in Poland, Boston's National Public Radio station, \u003ci\u003eThe Age\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Sydney Morning Herald\u003c\/i\u003e, and her Best American Essays-nominated piece, “Searching for the Nazi Who Saved My Mother’s Life,” was selected as a Narratively Best Ever story. Raised in Australia by a mother who was a Holocaust survivor who became a born again Christian and grandparents who silenced her questions about extermination camps, Karen lived amongst refugees who were hiding horrible secrets while trying to rebuild their identities. After discovering her grandparents were not her biological grandparents, she traveled the globe to uncover her family’s hidden past. She has lived in five countries across three continents and now calls Massachusetts home. She can be found online at KarenKirsten.com.","brand":"Citadel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233273688293,"sku":"NP9780806543666","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780806543666.jpg?v=1767730174","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/irenas-gift-isbn-9780806543666","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}