Overview

""The Butcher's Daughter"" has been short-listed for the prestigious 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize. What was it like to hide with your family in the dense forests of Poland for two long years, as Mameh did, living in a hole in the ground, while alert, always alert, to the sounds of Nazis and their dogs? How was it to be both hunter and hunted, as Tateh was, taking up arms, bartering for and stealing food, fighting for another day of life, wounded and recovering, while protecting others living in the forest-- the old, the infirm, the children. And what was it like for the narrator after the war, growing up with these two people, Mameh and Tateh, her parents, who held their stories close. And each of them haunted by the dead? The Butcher's Daughter, lays flesh on the bones of their stories. In language that is at once lyrical and graphic the book unfolds like memory, in pieces forming a whole that divides into three sections. It recounts not only the narrator's journey of growing up with these two Holocausts survivors, but as well her efforts to discover their stories and lay her own demons to rest.

Full Product Details

9780692803615

Table of Contents

Reviews

Many family memoirs and memoirs of survival struggle fall short of depicting the very worlds they seek to bring to life; but this isn't so in The Butcher's Daughter. Florence Grende's ability to lift the moments, impressions, thoughts, and passions from life and capture them in their crystalline seconds of agony and ecstasy elevates her story above and beyond similar-sounding accounts, creating an individually striking piece that doesn't have to hammer home its message, because every whisper is a powerhouse of emotion. Here's how I feel it still ... are approaches replete in every chapter and throughout her story, running swiftly and slowly like a river of emotion that turns into a stream, then rages. Florence Grende is a witness, safekeeping memories and dreams for herself, her family, and future generations. Come along with her on a journey that winds from a family's struggles not just to survive, but with survival's aftermath. It's a journey replete in ancient customs and rituals and modern translations and dilemmas and, under her hand, is one which evolves from being nobody's business to everyone's business, reaching deep into closely-held memories to pluck out the gems that keep life meaningful. --Diane Donovan, Senior Editor The Midwest Review December 2016 issue

_______________________ Florence Grende's heartrending account of her Jewish upbringing, a child of Holocaust survivors, weaves a story of pain and sorrow, fear and anger, and the hidden melancholy, the depression that makes monsters out of otherwise ordinary people. The Butcher's Daughter is a memoir that speaks for those too traumatized to voice their stories: the survivors and their children...This is more than just a memoir. It's a testament: a statement of a life shattered because of a brutal war. Hitler's evil affected more than just those who lived through it. His evil stretched into the next generation, not just amongst the Jews, but also amongst the children and the grandchildren of high ranking Nazis. A powerful story told with compassion. A must-read. --Emily-Jane Hills Orford, Readers' Favorite

Author Information

Florence Grende holds an MFA from the Stonecoast writing program at the University of Southern Maine. Her stories and poems have appeared in "" Babel Fruit,"" ""Poetica,"" ""The Sun,"" ""The Berkshire Review,"" "" The Women's Times,"" "" HotMetalBridge.org.,""in the anthologies ""Robot Hearts: True and Twisted Tales of Seeking Love in the Digital Age,"" and, in ""The Widow's Handbook: Poetic Reflections on Grief and Survival.""

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available