Thursday, June 18, 2009

"We Are On Our Own"

Monday afternoon, I stopped into the library to return some books after dropping N off at school for a meeting. I had some time to wander in the meantime and ended up bringing home an Edith Piaf CD and this lovely book by Miriam Katin. We Are On Our Own is a short illustrated memoir about Katin's escape of Nazi Budapest with her mother in 1945. It is written to follow a very young Katin and her mother's perspectives omnisciently. An outlying story reveals the struggle she's had with her faith since these events. It must be a surreal experience to recall these difficult memories and have to concentrate on them so deeply as to repeat them in drawings. The illustrations are really lovely and expressive.








2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Painful memories, I'm sure, and a release to get them down on paper. This topic brings to mind your Oma and her struggles with the same in WWII Poland.

Love, MOM

dobrya said...

Indeed...it helps to be able to see it through someone else's memories like in this book.