September 23 2016 Hello , Four days until IRENA'S CHILDREN hits bookstore
shelves!
Here's a confession. I love all of my books, but as with my children, sometimes there's a particular thing about a particular book that is extraordinarily close to my heart.
I think IRENA'S CHILDREN may be the best prose I've ever written. It's an adaptation of Tilar Mezzeo's more complex account of
Irena Sendler's life, so she did most all the work on this project.
I had the luxury of focusing on one thing--writing the very best story I could about one of the most courageous women in history.
What You Won't See in the Book |
The book has historical photographs throughout, but many did not make the cut. Here's one showing three of the children who's lives Irena saved,Michal Glowinski, Piotrus Zysman,
and Elzbieta Koppel.
I don't know when or where the photo was taken. Piotr, in the middle, was four years old when he was sneaked out of the Warsaw Ghetto. I first told Elzbieta's story here. At the time I didn't know I'd later be invited to work on a book about Irena.
The photo below of Irena and an unidentified child is courtesy of the Museum of Polish Jews. Courage was rooted deep in Irena's family. During the January Uprising in 1863, which started as a protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army,
Irena's great grandfather's small estate was headquarters for the insurgents near Kalisz in central Poland.
The Russians put down the Polish-Lithuanian rebels, executed many and deported others to Siberia, including Irena's maternal great grandfather Karol Grzybowski. He died after a year of hard labor
manacled to a wheeled cart. Irena was greatly influenced by her father, Stanislaw Krzyzanowski's political activities
and compassion for the poor, which is detailed in the book. During a typhoid epidemic in their local area, Irena's father was the only doctor who would treat those suffering the illness. He ended up catching the disease himself and dying when Irena was a young child.
Little wonder, Irena would later risk her life posing as a nurse to enter the Jewish Ghetto carrying medicine and food for the sick and starving. (Photograph courtesy of www.chabad.org & The Jewish Women.org) Above, Irena Sendler rides in a parade in Warsaw in 1948. (Courtesy Of The Irena Sendler Project) You might think that she would remain a celebrity for her humanitarian deeds, but after World War II when Poland fell to the Communists,
Irena was persona non grata like others who had supported or fought for Polish Independence. Congratulations Larry T. O'Neal, winner of my Facebook page contest! Larry is receiving a hardcover, pre-release copy of Irena's Children. My thanks to everyone who entered the contest by signing up for this newsletter. I hope you enjoy it, if not, let me know how I can improve.
LeeAnn Rizzuti was the winner of the recent subscriber raffle of a pre-release copy of Irena's Children.
Thanks, LeeAnn for posting a review on Goodreads! "Never gratuitous in its depictions, it nevertheless doesn’t shy from portraying the realities of what was at stake for those seen as undesirable, as less than human. Nor does it soften the
extreme danger Irena and everyone in her network faced by choosing to risk their lives to save the lives of others. Humanity snatching victory from inhumanity." Until next week... Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know.
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