Listeners are transported to 1930s New York City, where refugees fleeing a Nazi Germany on the eve of war are trying to forge new lives. Suzanne Toren rises to the challenge of narrating a novel with many different characters and accents. The stories weave together romance, tragedy, mystery, and sadness as the characters find themselves starting afresh in a completely different culture and environment. Toren’s narration helps to distinguish the key protagonists and creates a sympathetic backdrop for this poignant listen. She makes it easy for listeners to feel the anxiety of the refugees as they try to build new lives in an unfamiliar and sometimes suspicious society. Theirs is a roller coaster ride of despair, hope, and joy. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
We Were Strangers Once
Narrated by Suzanne Toren
Betsy CarterUnabridged — 10 hours, 2 minutes
We Were Strangers Once
Narrated by Suzanne Toren
Betsy CarterUnabridged — 10 hours, 2 minutes
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Overview
"Carter's warm and beautiful prose brings us love, tragedy, mystery and hope in a moving celebration of America and the people who have come to it." -- Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky Us and Away
On the eve of World War II Egon Schneider--a gallant and successful Jewish doctor, son of two world-famous naturalists--escapes Germany to an uncertain future across the sea. Settling into the unfamiliar rhythms of upper Manhattan, he finds solace among a tight-knit group of fellow immigrants, tenacious men and women drawn together as much by their differences as by their memories of the world they left behind.
They each suffer degradations and triumphs large and small: Egon's terminally acerbic lifelong friend, bestselling author Meyer Leavitt, now wears a sandwich board on a New York street corner; Catrina Harty, the headstrong daughter of a dirt-poor Irish trolley driver, survives heartbreak and loss to forge an unlikely alliance; and Egon himself is forced to abandon his thriving medical practice to become the "Cheese Man" at a Washington Heights grocery. But their spirits remain unbroken, and when their little community is faced with an existential threat, these strangers rise up together in hopes of creating a permanent home. With her uncanny ability to create indelible characters in unforgettable circumstances, bestselling author Betsy Carter has crafted a gorgeous novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt adrift and longed for home.
Editorial Reviews
"A moving story of loss, longing, and perseverance."—A Best New September Release, Real Simple
"In this sharply observed historical novel, a web of friendships connect German Jews in pre-Hitler Germany after they emigrate to America. In their complex relationships and struggles both emotional and cultural, we are given insight into life at its most resilient and joyous. An important book to remind us of the humanity in the current wave of immigrants, and how much they have to offer us."—Alice LaPlante, New York Times bestselling author of Turn of Mind
"Betsy Carter's warm and beautiful prose brings us love, tragedy, mystery and hope in a moving celebration of America and the people who have come to it."—Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky Us and Away
"Moving and intensely personal, this subtle novel of the immigrant experience in 1940s Manhattan boasts impressive and varied character development... There are multiple read-alikes here: Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale (2015) for Carter's lovely writing style and the pathos in her story; Dinaw Mengestu's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007) for Carter's evocation of the poverty and yearning to belong that are so often the immigrant's lot; and Natasha Solomons' Mr. Rosenblum Dreams (2010) for Carter's endearing characters with their unbridled determination and positive attitude. A memorable, important, and insightful novel."
—Booklist, starred review
"This is a gorgeous, heartbreaking book... beautiful in its characters' resilience and reminders of the contributions immigrants have made to this country... Carter has created a vivid world... Their stories are unique and distinctive, and yet their struggles feel familiar. Could this be required reading for anyone who seeks to keep refugees out of this country?"—Historical Novels Review
"The sights, the sounds, the fears, the disappointments, the hopes, the triumphs and the passion of a group of people are so real, readers will believe they are their friends and neighbors."—RT Reviews
"I was carried through We Were Strangers Once by a story as swiftly paced affecting as the events that deposit its characters on wartime American shores. I believed in this desperate flotsam of immigrant souls, drawn with keen historical accuracy, humor, and a lackmaker's eye for detail. I didn't want to leave these benighted, unlikely lovers. Imagine: A literate, deft and moving binge read."
—Gerri Hirshey, author of Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown
"Historically accurate, warm, moving and easy to recommend."—New York Journal of Books
"A gorgeous novel about a tight-knit group of immigrants in New York in the 1930s, sharing friendship, triumphs and disappointments as they try to forge new lives in a strange new land."—New York Post
"WE WERE STRANGERS ONCE, though a work of historical fiction, demonstrates how difficult and stressful it was/is to arrive in a foreign land to begin a new life. We are reminded that, yes, we all were strangers here once and that the refugee experience continues to repeat itself today in many parts of the globe. What we see on the evening news is just a tiny glimpse of what strangers to any foreign land must endure and overcome."—Book Reporter
"In this unsentimental yet affecting novel, intertwined tales of Irish and German immigrants to the U.S. vividly capture the characters and their eras. Taking its title from a Barack Obama quote, the book illuminates the experience of immigrants—and our conflicted promise to them—even today."—People Magazine
2017-06-20
As the title implies, Carter's latest (The Puzzle King, 2009, etc.) explores the experiences of a group of Jewish refugees from Germany in 1930s New York City while also offering a nod to earlier Irish immigrants.Carter takes her time establishing protagonist Egon Schneider's family history and credentials. In 1890, illustrator Elisabeth Arnstein and naturalist Rudolph Schneider, both secular Jews, fall in love, marry, and raise only child Egon. By 1900, the publication of their opus European Ornithology has earned the couple a reputation as "the Audubons of Europe." After Elisabeth's death, her sensitive spirit broken by the poverty she witnesses in post-WWI Germany, Egon decides to become a doctor. His college roommate, Meyer Leavitt, an aspiring writer, recognizes the Nazi threat before Egon does, but by the late 1930s both men, along with a number of acquaintances—this story is about survivors, not the victims left behind—have arrived in Manhattan. Meanwhile Carter shifts gears to trace the family history of Catrina Harty, the daughter of Irish immigrants. By her late 20s, Catrina has survived her father's desertion when she was a child and the deaths of not one but two husbands, one barely explained, the other under suspicious circumstances. The romance of Egon and Catrina, who meet at the grocery deli counter where Egon works since his medical license is useless in America, must weather any number of obstacles, but their interminable goodness and kindness make for rather dull characters. More intriguing are some members of Egon's circle: a bitter, formerly wealthy banker's daughter; a couple who are too homesick for Germany to adjust to their new world; and secretly sensitive pessimist Meyer, who writes about his friends with brutal love. The journalistic flatness of the narrative and Carter's tendency toward easy sentimentality make for a disappointingly pedestrian take on what should be a dramatically charged subject given today's refugee crisis.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170034024 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hachette Audio |
| Publication date: | 09/12/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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