MARCH 2017 - AudioFile
The Kurcs, a large, prosperous Jewish family, were comfortable in Radom, Poland—until the 1939 German invasion. Finding themselves dispersed all across Europe, South America, and elsewhere, the family does all in its power to reunite after the war. Narrator Kathleen Gati doesn’t overdramatize this emotional Holocaust story, but neither does she alter her tone to create identifiable characters. Narrator Robert Fass offers a much-needed break in the story’s tension as he delivers the historical aspects of the author’s account of her family’s experiences prior to and during WWII. Gati’s use of a slight accent lends credibility to the hardships and heartaches the Kurcs faced—from terrifying encounters with Nazis to the betrayals of friends that led to hiding and, finally, escape from certain death. Intense listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
12/05/2016
Debut author Hunter excavates the remarkable history of her own family in this chronicle, which follows the journeys of a Polish Jewish family during the Holocaust. The 1939 German invasion of Poland sunders the Kurc family. Aging parents Sol and Nechuma stay in their home of Radom, along with their adult daughters Halina and Mila. Their sons Genek and Jakob join the Polish army; a third son, Addy, is stuck in France, soon to be conscripted. During the course of the war, the Kurcs are flung to distant points on the globe, from Brazil to Siberia. They work for the underground, fight battles in Italy, and are imprisoned in gulags. They stage daring escapes from ghettos, hide in plain sight in Polish cities, and, always, yearn for the days when their family was whole. V-day finds some of the Kurcs together, but the celebration is empty; they are still sundered, mourning, and directionless. The Kurc family’s final triumph is not tied to the defeat of the Nazis, but to the family’s survival and reunion against impossible odds. However, this is not a saga with a jubilant Hollywood ending. The Kurc family’s survival is often due to nothing more than desperate luck. Hunter sidesteps hollow sentimentality and nihilism, revealing instead the beautiful complexity and ambiguity of life in this extraordinarily moving tale. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
[Georgia Hunter is] just as courageous as the characters her writing will never let us forget.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“Love in the face of global adversity? It couldn't be more timely.” —Glamour, “Best Books to Read in 2017”
“[A] gripping, emotional novel.” —People , “The Best New Books”
“A remarkable story of courage, love, and of course, luck.” —Book Riot’s Best Books of 2017
“[A] gripping and moving story.” —Bustle, “15 New Authors You’re Going To Be Obsessed With This Year”
“Turning history into fiction can be tricky . . . Hunter finesses the challenge. Her novel brings the Kurcs to life in heart-pounding detail.” —The Jewish Voice
“The story that so grippingly comes across in the pages of We Were the Lucky Ones isn't strictly fiction—the characters and events that inhabit this Holocaust survival story are based on her family's own history.” —Newsweek
“[A] must-read.” —New York Post
“[A] remarkable history . . . Hunter sidesteps hollow sentimentality and nihilism, revealing instead the beautiful complexity and ambiguity of life in this extraordinarily moving tale.” —Publishers Weekly
A Finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards’ Book Club Award
A Women’s National Book Association Great Group Read
“Reading Georgia Hunter’s We Were the Lucky Ones is like being swung heart first into history. Her engrossing and deeply affecting account . . . will leave you breathless. But the true wonder of the book is how convincingly Hunter inhabits these characters, each modeled after her own family members. This is their story Hunter is telling so beautifully and profoundly, and ours as well. A brave and mesmerizing debut, and a truly tremendous accomplishment.” —Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun
“We Were the Lucky Ones is the most gripping novel I've read in years. Georgia Hunter pulled me into another world, vivid, horrifying, astonishing, and heartbreaking.” —Lauren Belfer, New York Times bestselling author of And After the Fire, A Fierce Radiance, and City of Light.
“We Were the Lucky Ones is a skillfully woven reimagining of [Hunter’s] own family’s struggle for survival during World War II . . . with spectacular historical detail. This emotionally resonant, gripping portrait of the war is filled with beautifully drawn and wonderfully heroic characters I won’t soon forget.” —Jillian Cantor, author of Margot and The Hours Count
“Georgia Hunter has crafted her own family history into a sprawling, yet still intimate portrait of those swept up in the devastation of war and scattered to the winds. It is an astonishing saga of hope, of luck, of destruction, and most remarkably of love, made all the more astonishing because of the true story at its core.” —David R. Gillham, New York Times bestselling author of City of Women
“Elegantly executed and always clear, Hunter evokes pre-war Poland with loving detail, clearly showing what was left behind and lost. . . . We Were the Lucky Ones is a compelling read, notable for Hunter’s clear portraits of her plucky, resilient family, and for her ability to build suspense and investment without emotional manipulation.” —Courtney Naliboff, ReformJudaism
Library Journal
Winter 2018
Based on an incredible true story, this title follows a large Jewish family scattered by World War II and their amazing tale of perseverance and survival. (LJ 12/16)
MARCH 2017 - AudioFile
The Kurcs, a large, prosperous Jewish family, were comfortable in Radom, Poland—until the 1939 German invasion. Finding themselves dispersed all across Europe, South America, and elsewhere, the family does all in its power to reunite after the war. Narrator Kathleen Gati doesn’t overdramatize this emotional Holocaust story, but neither does she alter her tone to create identifiable characters. Narrator Robert Fass offers a much-needed break in the story’s tension as he delivers the historical aspects of the author’s account of her family’s experiences prior to and during WWII. Gati’s use of a slight accent lends credibility to the hardships and heartaches the Kurcs faced—from terrifying encounters with Nazis to the betrayals of friends that led to hiding and, finally, escape from certain death. Intense listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2016-11-22
Hunter's debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It's less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. "You'll get only one shot at this," Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. "Don't botch it." Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. "That form is a deal breaker," he tells himself. "It's life and death." And: "They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they'll need it." Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter's writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town "a total shitscape." This is a low point for Hunter's writing; elsewhere in the novel, it's stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century's worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn't been able to break free from her dependence on it. Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
