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999 : Book summary and reviews of 999 by Heather Dune Macadam

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The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz

by Heather Dune Macadam

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Published Dec 2019 400 pages Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion Publication Information

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Book summary.

On March 25, 1942, nearly a thousand young, unmarried Jewish women boarded a train in Poprad, Slovakia. Filled with a sense of adventure and national pride, they left their parents' homes wearing their best clothes and confidently waving good-bye.

Believing they were going to work in a factory for a few months, they were eager to report for government service. Instead, the young women—many of them teenagers—were sent to Auschwitz. Their government paid 500 Reich Marks (about $200) apiece for the Nazis to take them as slave labor. Of those 999 innocent deportees, only a few would survive.   The facts of the first official Jewish transport to Auschwitz are little known, yet profoundly relevant today. These were not resistance fighters or prisoners of war. There were no men among them. Sent to almost certain death, the young women were powerless and insignificant not only because they were Jewish—but also because they were female. Now acclaimed author Heather Dune Macadam reveals their poignant stories, drawing on extensive interviews with survivors, and consulting with historians, witnesses, and relatives of those first deportees to create an important addition to Holocaust literature and women's history.

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Media Reviews

Reader reviews.

"[I]ntimate and harrowing...This careful, sympathetic history illuminates an incomprehensible human tragedy." - Publishers Weekly "An uplifting story of the herculean strength of young girls in a staggeringly harrowing situation." - Kirkus Reviews "Against the backdrop of World War II, this respectful narrative presents a compassionate and meticulous remembrance of the young women profiled throughout. Recommended for all collections." - Library Journal "A staggering narrative about the forgotten women of the Holocaust. In a profound work of scholarship, Heather Dune Macadam reveals how young women helped each other survive one of the most egregious events in human history. Her book also offers insight into the passage of these women into adulthood, and their children, as 'secondhand survivors.'" - Gail Sheehy, New York Times bestselling author of Passages and Daring: My Passages "An important addition to the annals of the Holocaust, as well as women's history. Not everyone could handle such material, but Heather Dune Macadam is deeply qualified, insightful and perceptive." - Susan Lacy, creator of the American Masters series and filmmaker "However much one reads about the Holocaust there is always something more with the power to shock. The story of these teenage girls is truly extraordinary. Congratulations to Heather Dune Macadam for enabling the rest of us to sit down and just marvel at how on earth they did it." - Anne Sebba, New York Times bestselling author of Les Parisiennes and That Woman "An important contribution to the literature on women's experiences...With passion and extensive research, Heather Dune Macadam gives the first official women's transport to Auschwitz its rightful place in Holocaust history." - Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel, founder and executive director, Remember the Women Institute

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Author Information

Heather dune macadam.

Heather Dune Macadam's first book, co-authored with Rena Kornreich Gelissen, was Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz . Rena's Promise has been published throughout the world. Director of the Rena's Promise Foundation, Macadam also sits on the advisory board of the Cities of Peace Auschwitz and is the producer/director of the documentary film 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz . Her work has been recognized by Yad Vashem in the U.K., the USC Shoah Foundation, the National Museum of Jewish History in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the Memorial Museum of Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. Her writing has been featured in National Geographic , the New York Times , the Guardian , on NPR, and in other major media outlets. She divides her time between New York and Herefordshire, England.

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Tiger Riding for Beginners

Bernie gourley: traveling poet-philosopher & aspiring puddle dancer.

BOOK REVIEW: 999 ed. by Al Sarrantonio

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon page

999 is a collection of 28 short stories and one novella that are all in the genre of horror and dark suspense. The collection includes some superstar authors such as Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, and David Morrell, but all of the authors are established writers and most will be familiar to readers in this genre.

I won’t go into each story in-depth, but will list and briefly describe each. A few of the stories stuck with me, while others were quite forgettable—so I’ll point out which were which. Your results may vary.

1.) “Amerikanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue” by Kim Newman: This is a Cold War Zombie story. It was intriguing. 2.) “The Ruins of Contracoeur” by Joyce Carol Oates: The family of a disgraced Judge move to a remote area to stay out of the limelight, and faceless monster sightings ensue. How bad could a Joyce Carol Oates’ story be? It’s solid and well-written. It wasn’t among my favorites. 3.) “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Thomas M. Disch: An “inanimate” stuffed owl and plush-toy cat converse about their wicked, spouse-abusing owner. Creepy, but not one of the strongest entries. The stories in this collection range from realism to far-fetched speculative fiction. This work is toward the latter end of the spectrum. 4.) “The Road Virus Heads North” by Stephen King: A mutating “killer” picture is obtained at a yard sale. This is among the stronger stories. 5.) “Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story” by Neil Gaiman: About a collector of the “exotic.” While Gaiman is my favorite author of this bunch, I can’t say this is story was among my favorites of the collection. I will say that it has some of the cleverest wording of any of the stories (as one would expect of Gaiman), but maybe that humor works at right-angles to the story. You decide. 6.) “Growing Things” by T.E.D. Klein: About a husband / Mr. Fixit and his following of advice columns on a growth. This is a short piece, but not among the more memorable stories. It’s innovative, but not the least bit intense. 7.) “Good Friday” by F. Paul Wilson: A vampire story set in a convent. A good story, but obviously not particularly innovative. However, if you like the idea of nuns battling vampires, here’s your story. 8.) “Excerpts from the Records of the New Zodiac and the Diaries of Henry Watson Fairfax” by Chet Williamson: A swanky dinner club that rotates hosts and each host tries to outdo the last in the presentation of “exotic delicacies.” 9.) “An Exaltation of Termagants” by Eric Van Lustbader: I’ll have to be honest; this was the least memorable of these stories. When I flipped back through to write this review, I found that I’d completely forgotten the piece. I think its lack of memorableness speaks for itself. It’s about an unappealing man and his sucky life that’s tied to his poor relationships with women. I think the problem is two-fold. First, it’s one of the longer stories in the collection. Second, unlike Joe R. Lansdale’s “Mad Dog Summer,” it’s a long short story without memorable characters or a taut story arc. In short, if you’re going to go long, you’ve got to give us characters we can either love or despise, and you’ve got to give us a pace that keeps us intrigued. This story does neither. I know it’s all subjective, but I think this collection without this story would be improved. 10.) “Itinerary” by Tim Powers: A mysterious caller asks the protagonist to tell an unknown woman caller that said caller “just left” in response to her inquiry. From there the story meanders into personal tragedy before bringing it all back together in the end. It was so-so. I liked the premise, but it didn’t have that x-factor in execution. 11.) “Catfish Gal Blues” by Nancy A. Collins: A river catfish mermaid story. This was a weird but highly memorable story. 12.) “The Entertainment” by Ramsey Campbell: Man thinks he’s checked into a hotel, but it’s really some sort of asylum. Not the most memorable, but not the least either. 13.) “ICU” by Edward Lee: Man awakes in an ICU, and is informed that he’s a gangster involved in pedophilia and other hardcore taboo pornography. Vivid and well-crafted. 14.) “The Grave” by P.D. Cacek: A young woman with a horrible mother discovers a grave in the woods that she’s never seen before. This one is eery and visceral. 15.) “The Shadow, The Darkness” by Thomas Ligotti: About a tour group promised “the ultimate physical-metaphysical excursion.” This paranormal story is just OK. 16.) “Knocking” by Rick Hautala: Remember Y2K? It was the idea that the entirety of the world of computing would come to a screeching halt because their little (inadequately programmed) computer minds would be blown by a date starting in “20?” This story is based on that notion. 17.) “Rio Grande Gothic” by David Morrell: A cop keeps finding shoes left in the same section of road, and eventually begins to wonder if someone isn’t trying to tell him something. This story does a good job of capturing one’s curiosity and keeping one’s attention. 18.) “Des Saucisses, Sans Doute” by Peter Schneider: This is one of the shorter stories in the book, and it’s also an almost absurdist dark piece. You may laugh or you may vomit, either way the writer had an effect. 19.) “Angie” by Ed Gorman: This story is white-trash gothic. It’s about a couple that are “stuck” with this kid, and are concerned that the child has learned their dirty, little secret and will turn them in. It was one of the stories that stuck with me most intensely. The unlikable character development is exceptional. 20.) “The Ropy Thing” by Al Sarrantonio: A couple of kids in a neighborhood assaulted by a thing that is… well, ropy (rope-like.) Not one of the better pieces, but it has the virtue of being short. 21.) “The Tree is My Hat” by Gene Wolfe: A man befriends an outcast on island in the South Pacific. It’s a solid piece. 22.) “Styx and Bones” by Edward Bryant: A cheating man comes down with a mysterious ailment. This is a well-executed story. 23.) “Hemophage” by Steven Spruill: Another vampire story, this one set inside a detective story. 24.) “The Book of Irrational Numbers” by Michael Marshall Smith: It’s about a guy from Roanoke, Virginia who is obsessed with numbers. As there aren’t many math short stories, if you are a big fan of math fiction you may find this interesting. The writing style is fun. If you aren’t a math fan, you may lose the story. 25.) “Mad Dog Summer” by Joe R. Lansdale: A man recounts a story of murder from his youth living in a rural community. This is one of the strongest stories in the collection. It’s also one of the longest, but the author does an outstanding job of keeping one’s attention throughout. 26.) “The Theatre” by Bentley Little: A clerk at a bookstore ventures into a forbidden floor above the store to find a creepy theater that will change his life. It’s a good, creepy story. 27.) “Rehersals” by Thomas F. Monteleone: I don’t know that I would have put this in the same genre as the other stories, but it’s an excellent story—and so I can see why the editor was eager to include it. It is speculative fiction, as opposed to being realist, but I wouldn’t count it as either horror or suspense. It’s about a man handling props in a community theater who is given glimpses into what his life could have been like if he’d stood up to his abusive father. It’s one of the best stories in the collection. 28.) “Darkness” by Dennis L. McKiernan: A man moves into a beautiful house willed to him by an eccentric uncle. The problem is that the lights in the house are so bright as to be an assault on the eyes—leaving not a shadow or dark space in the house. The lights are wired to be either all on or all off. It doesn’t occur to the nephew that the lights might be that way for a reason. 29.) “Elsewhere” by William Peter Blatty: This is the longest piece–a novella / very short novel and not a short story. It’s about a realtor who’s trying to sell a house that’s haunted. She brings together a writer and a couple “experts on the paranormal” to debunk the haunting so that the house will become salable. But everything is not as it appears.

This is a good collection of stories. Some are better than others, but the best are extraordinary. I’d highly recommend it for anyone who likes horror, dark suspense, or the macabre. Within that genre, it’s an eclectic mix of stories in form, substance, and style.

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ISBN: 0380977400

ISBN13: 9780380977406

999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense

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Format: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

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Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology"One of the best anthologies of horror and suspense of all time."--Rocky Mountain NewsFrom award-winning author and "master anthologist"* Al... This description may be from another edition of this product.

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999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Emergency exits.

The visual novel should be the ideal gateway drug for non-gamers. Particularly on DS, it seems a natural step up from a Kindle, and a couple of paces behind chat-heavy graphic adventures like the Ace Attorney series and CiNG's Hotel Dusk or Last Window.

Chunsoft, developer of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, has enjoyed some success in the East with its Sound Novel series, most notably with the SEGA-published 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya de which earned a rare 40/40 score from the popular and influential Famitsu magazine. Yet 999 is the first of its kind to be released in the West, perhaps because its occasional puzzle interludes make it feel less like a traditional visual novel and more like a Professor Layton adventure – at least if Hershel and Luke had watched a lot of Saw films recently. Within the first hour, someone's insides have decorated a corridor courtesy of a bomb in their small intestine, which is admittedly a touch less genteel than Nintendo's flagship puzzler.

The victim, along with player character Junpei and seven others, is part of a bizarre experiment known as The Nonary Game. Each character has a bracelet on his or her left wrist, primed to detonate if they break any of the game's rules or if their heart rate flatlines. The ultimate object is to reach the door marked '9', passing through a series of numbered rooms along the way and solving the puzzles set by a number-obsessed, gas-masked sociopath known simply as Zero.

These riddles range from the kind of fare you'll find in any Flash 'escape the room' puzzler to more thoughtful and intricate conundrums. The challenge is pitched just about perfectly; puzzles are satisfying but rarely especially taxing, allowing you to progress the story without too much trouble.

The items you'll need are always in the same room or area you're trapped in, and patient players will eventually happen across the right solution simply through thorough tapping and a bit of moderate brain-work. One minor issue is that some solutions are all but gift-wrapped and hints are often a little too obvious. "It's screwed onto the wall," says one character about a clock, almost immediately after you recover a screwdriver. What to do, what to do...

But the puzzles aren't the focus; they're merely a sporadic diversion from the branching plot. 999's American publisher Aksys Games has previous in this genre, having resurrected the career of quiffed, chain-smoking detective Jake Hunter by reworking his poorly edited and translated Western debut Detective Chronicles into the not-half-bad Memories of the Past. 999 represents another step forward for the Aksys localisation team, and despite a few inconsistencies, it's a solid effort.

M Night Shyamalan would love the plot, a high-concept thriller with sci-fi elements and a sackful of twists, including a brilliant closing reveal (spoiled slightly by a real groaner of a final-frame gag). It stumbles a little with a romantic and particularly fanciful conceit as the game heads towards its 'true' ending (one of six), asking the player-reader to suspend just a little too much disbelief.

In places, the exposition-heavy dialogue reminded me of Inception; both game and film take the time to make sure their audiences are absorbing some complex ideas. Some such exchanges are inappropriately timed, though – one sequence sees characters enjoy a lengthy conversation about glycerin whilst trapped in a freezer, which lessens the urgency of the situation somewhat. While the script does its best to build up a menacing atmosphere, the lack of time limits on the puzzles and the characters' rather philosophical approach to their situation is at odds with the nine-hour countdown imposed by the enigmatic villain. That, and there's no way to make 'Nonary' sound even remotely threatening.

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THE EXTRAORDINARY YOUNG WOMEN OF THE FIRST OFFICIAL JEWISH TRANSPORT TO AUSCHWITZ

by Heather Dune Macadam ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 31, 2019

An uplifting story of the herculean strength of young girls in a staggeringly harrowing situation.

A fresh, remarkable story of Auschwitz on the 75th anniversary of its liberation.

Dune Macadam (co-author: Rena’s Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz , 1995) chronicles the tale of nearly 1,000 Jewish women from Slovakia, the first women to be shipped to the German death camp. While not the majority of inmates, a majority of the Slovakian Jews were sent there. The author makes great use of her “interviews with witnesses, survivors, and families, and USC Shoah Archive testimonies.” Most readers have learned about the many shocking aspects of the camps, including slave labor and other countless deprivations, but the author shows us how every time a train pulled in, there would be a selection, for work or extermination; the same would occur at morning roll call. There was no rhyme nor reason to the selection process; it was often just a whim. Those women in this first shipment were tattooed beginning with the number 1,000, but within a year, they were numbering nearly 39,000. As Dune Macadam notes, there were some work assignments that were safer and slightly more comfortable: sewing, laundry, mail, clerical, and hospital. The most sought-after assignment was sorting the clothes of new arrivals. Often, the women would find a piece of bread or other contraband they could carefully smuggle out. One woman found a tube of diamonds. When she was caught, she claimed she was saving it for one of the Nazis in charge; she got off, and he took leave, bought a farm, and never returned. Throughout the book, readers will be consistently astounded by the strength of these women. They fought desperately to survive and supported each other, often literally holding up friends and hiding sick inmates. “My goal,” writes Dune Macadam in an author’s note, “is to build as complete a picture as I can of the girls and young women of the first ‘official’ Jewish transport to Auschwitz.” It’s not easy reading, but consider that goal achieved.

Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-8065-3936-2

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Citadel/Kensington

Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019

HISTORY | HOLOCAUST | MILITARY | JEWISH | GENERAL HISTORY

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A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

by Howard Zinn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1979

For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History ). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979

ISBN: 0061965588

Page Count: 772

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

GENERAL HISTORY | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | UNITED STATES | POLITICS | HISTORY

More by Rebecca Stefoff

by Howard Zinn ; adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with by Ed Morales

by Howard Zinn with Ray Suarez

by Howard Zinn

THE EARP BROTHERS, DOC HOLLIDAY, AND THE VENDETTA RIDE FROM HELL

by Tom Clavin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2020

Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.

Rootin’-tootin’ history of the dry-gulchers, horn-swogglers, and outright killers who populated the Wild West’s wildest city in the late 19th century.

The stories of Wyatt Earp and company, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Geronimo and the Apache Wars are all well known. Clavin, who has written books on Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok, delivers a solid narrative that usefully links significant events—making allies of white enemies, for instance, in facing down the Apache threat, rustling from Mexico, and other ethnically charged circumstances. The author is a touch revisionist, in the modern fashion, in noting that the Earps and Clantons weren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture has made them out to be. For example, Wyatt and Bat Masterson “took the ‘peace’ in peace officer literally and knew that the way to tame the notorious town was not to outkill the bad guys but to intimidate them, sometimes with the help of a gun barrel to the skull.” Indeed, while some of the Clantons and some of the Earps died violently, most—Wyatt, Bat, Doc Holliday—died of cancer and other ailments, if only a few of old age. Clavin complicates the story by reminding readers that the Earps weren’t really the law in Tombstone and sometimes fell on the other side of the line and that the ordinary citizens of Tombstone and other famed Western venues valued order and peace and weren’t particularly keen on gunfighters and their mischief. Still, updating the old notion that the Earp myth is the American Iliad , the author is at his best when he delineates those fraught spasms of violence. “It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens,” he writes at one high point, “to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather.” Indeed not, even if Ringo wound up killing himself and law-abiding Tombstone faded into obscurity when the silver played out.

Pub Date: April 21, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-250-21458-4

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HISTORICAL & MILITARY | UNITED STATES | HISTORY

More by Tom Clavin

by Tom Clavin & Bob Drury

by Tom Clavin

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Heather on History

Making history matter.

Book Review of 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam

Across the country of Slovakia in March 1942, town criers announced that unmarried Jewish girls between ages 16-36 had to register at the high school (or some other community center) for government work. They would have to leave their families for three months to do this work. What the girls and their families didn’t yet know was that the “government work” really meant that they would be taken to Auschwitz concentration camp. Many never saw their families again.

Though books like Elie Wiesel’s Night are often taught in schools, the perspective of women in the Holocaust is taught less often. In extensive interviews with survivors from the first transport of girls taken to Auschwitz, Macadam’s book shows the reader how women’s experience of Auschwitz differed from that of men.

All prisoners entering Auschwitz had to give up luggage and jewelry before having every hair on their bodies shaved. Girls from the first transport were additionally subjected to “gynecological exams” that amounted to rape. Survivor Bertha Berkowitz eventually got a job as a leichenkommando, which meant that she moved the dead bodies of other girls. One small advantage of this job was that Bertha got to grow her hair back, but Bertha had hers shaved again when she was caught stealing. The experience brought back the horror of the first day when she was shaved and raped. It was “the only time I really wanted to commit suicide,” Bertha said.

Entrance gate at Auschwitz concentration camp, June 2005 by Muu-karhu

Men and women battled diseases like typhus which is carried by lice and fleas. However, Commandant Rudolph Hoss stated that “conditions in the women’s camp were atrocious and far worse than the men’s camp.” Prisoners were “piled high to the ceiling. Everything was black with lice.”  When family transports arrived, any women who had children were immediately gassed.

Girls, like men, might die from the work they were forced to do. Construction work was especially dangerous. Girls demolished houses by hitting walls with heavy iron rods and tried not to get killed by falling debris.

Other women had jobs that gave them a better chance at survival than men. Girls doing secretarial work got better clothes and food than even the other women. It was important for them to look good because they worked directly with the SS. As more prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, sorting clothes was another job often given to women. Trying to smuggle clothes for themselves or their friends could lead to the gas chamber, however.

One girl from the first transport, Helena Citron, caught the attention of SS Franz Wunsch. Although at first Helena wanted nothing to do with him, she started to fall in love with him. Their relationship meant that Wunsch did what he could for Helena, including saving her sister who had children from the gas chamber. He walked into the chamber’s changing room, separated Helena’s sister from her children, and marched out with her.

Both male and female prisoners needed help from friends and family to survive. Women without family needed a lagerstrasse sister–the term prisoners used to describe friendships that were as close as blood ties. When Edith Friedman lost her sister Lea to typhus, she also lost the will to live. Elsa Rosenthal became Edith’s lagerstrasse sister, making sure she ate the meager food and repeatedly telling her how much Elsa needed her.

The book 999 is a valuable addition to Holocaust research. I recommend it for ages 14 and up.

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999 book reviews

A personal view on some of the book I read.

Friday 2 May 2008

The logic of life: uncovering the new economics of everything.

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• The Logic of Life: Uncovering the New Economics of...

10 books to add to your reading list in June

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Critic Bethanne Patrick recommends 10 promising titles, fiction and nonfiction, to consider for your June reading list.

With books tied to historical anniversaries and about two driven women, June offers powerful perspectives on what and how we remember. Novelists engage with societal shunning, the ghosts of ancestors and beachside grief; nonfiction writers with overturned case law, misplaced aspirations and reclaiming the legacy of a brilliant comic.

The Future Was Color: A Novel By Patrick Nathan Counterpoint: 224 pages, $26 (June 4)

Nathan employs the timeless “a stranger comes to town” plot, as a gay Hungarian Jew named George Curtis gets invited to a chic Malibu house for a 1950s Hollywood heyday. However, George’s backstory in Manhattan and future in Paris bookend that bacchanalia and show how dark the shadow of McCarthyism and its “Lavender Scare” loomed over queer society — as other paranoias of the day did over other people, reminding readers that things have not changed enough.

Godwin By Joseph O’Neill Pantheon: 288 pages, $28 (June 4)

From “Netherland” to “The Dog” and now in “Godwin,” O’Neill has evinced strong interests in team sports (cricket, soccer) and colonialism (in Dubai, and Africa broadly). As protagonist Mark Wolfe, recently disgraced at work in Pittsburgh, tries to help his half sibling track down an African soccer star (the titular Godwin), the mordant humor and keen observations of late-stage capitalism give lift to the theme of how and where and when we support each other.

Tiananmen Square: A Novel By Lai Wen Spiegel & Grau: 528 pages, $22 (June 4)

June 4 marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The pseudonymous Lai Wen’s fictional account of her upbringing under communism and the friendships she forged as a student offers an important window into what spurred the Chinese student protests that ended in violence. Despite knowing the outcome, readers will be riveted by the author’s thoughtful, moving narrative of coming to political consciousness in a time of danger.

Sandwich: A Novel By Catherine Newman Harper: 240 pages, $27 (June 18)

With the pacing of a thriller, observations akin to poetry and real-life conflict like memoir, Newman’s novel about one family’s week on Cape Cod should find a place in your beach bag, even if your own summer vacation is in Bali. The menopausal Rocky, her husband, their two grown children (along with one’s partner), and her aged parents enjoy time-honored traditions but also have to figure out how to negotiate time’s changes on all of them.

Devil Is Fine: A Novel By John Vercher Celadon Books: 272 pages, $29 (June 18)

Vercher’s second novel provides a startling perspective, even darker than “American Fiction,” on what it means to be a person of color operating within our nation’s book-publishing industry. As the unnamed narrator copes with parenting a teenage son, he receives an unexpected inheritance from his white mother’s family that triggers tragic visions — and allows him to at last untangle his feelings about his own identity.

Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius By Carrie Courogen SMP: 400 pages, $30 (June 4)

The 92-year-old Elaine May does exist, and Carrie Courogen’s biography of May shows her long and vibrant career — and how her particular talent for comedy writing was ignored by too many of her contemporaries. Despite her stellar, groundbreaking work with Mike Nichols, May didn’t experience career liftoff until her 50s, when she became known as a script fixer. Today, her commitment to creative control sounds an important note for women in media.

The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America By Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer Flatiron Books: 448 pages, $33 (June 4)

The subtitle of this new book by New York Times reporters Dias (religion) and Lerer (politics) underscores how the conservative religious faction’s far-reaching and secretive strategy of putting anti-abortion activists in the spotlight changed rights for Americans in June 2022. As the authors warn, if Democrats don’t change their own strategy, we might see an entirely different nation emerge because of a single issue.

Ambition Monster: A Memoir By Jennifer Romolini Atria: 304 pages, $29 (June 4)

Host of the “Everything Is Fine” podcast and author of “Weird in a World That’s Not,” Romolini here focuses on her own difficult upbringing and (at least early on) dysfunctional relationship with achievement and its signals, from corner office to substantial salary. Even after she earned all of those, she wasn’t fulfilled. This highly personal narrative documents how the author detached from her inner fears to find a more authentic path.

When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day By Garrett M. Graff Avid Reader Press: 608 pages, $33 (June 4)

June 4 also marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy, and Graff’s collection of 700 participants’ stories provides a compelling window into the kind of military maneuvers few living Americans can remember. The surprise landing of over 150,000 Allied troops on French beaches led to the eventual defeat of the Axis powers. Reading about survivors’ experiences in their own words proves a solemn practice.

The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir By Griffin Dunne Penguin Press: 400 pages, $30 (June 11)

Griffin Dunne has spent a lifetime surrounded by brilliant writers: his father, Dominick Dunne; his uncle and aunt, John Gregory Dunne and his wife Joan Didion; and his brother, Alex Dunne. Griffin Dunne is also a noted actor/director/producer. Perhaps the literary talent shown in his heartwrenching memoir shouldn’t be a surprise. Still, his deeply felt account of his sister Dominique’s 1982 murder, which opens the book, startles with its honesty, spareness and elegant structure.

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What one man learned living alone in the wilderness for 40 years

In his memoir, “The Way of the Hermit,” Ken Smith dispels myths about the solitary life off the grid.

Ken Smith has spent most of his life alone in the wilderness. For years, he was a “homeless nomad,” wandering through Alaska, Canada and Scotland. Now in his late 70s, he is simply a hermit, living in the Scottish Highlands in a cabin he built of fallen trees.

The word “hermit” might bring to mind ancient monks in stone huts or, possibly, the Unabomber. But Smith is a gregarious hermit, downright jolly. His new book, “ The Way of the Hermit ,” is in part an effort to dispel myths about what it means to be a hermit. “More often than not, introversion and reclusion, the fundamental character traits of a hermit, have become closely associated with those who have a real visceral anger and forceful hostility toward humankind,” he writes. “This is absolutely not the way of the hermit, and is a dreadful smear on all those who prefer the quiet life — all introverts, as well as hermits and recluses.”

Smith didn’t move to the wilderness to find God or to avoid people; he moved to the wilderness to become part of nature. When he first visited the Highlands at age 15, Smith “felt immediately at ease when wandering alone in those mountains,” he writes. “They spoke to me in a way that nowhere else had.” He might not have thrown himself wholeheartedly into the hermit life had it not been for an assault he suffered in his 20s.

Leaving a pub late at night, he was jumped by “a gang of eight lads with shaven heads,” who beat him, kicked him and left him for dead. He was hospitalized for months and underwent four brain surgeries. After recovering, he decided to live the life he wanted rather than one “stuck indoors in a suit and tie, trapped behind a desk.”

And so off he went, to the Yukon.

The first half of this book is a rip-roaring read, filled with death-defying adventures — fighting off grizzly bears; avoiding a charging bull moose; nearly freezing in an ice-encrusted tent. Smith falls into a raging river, loses his supply pack and nearly drowns. Still, he loved it all: “It was intoxicating, invigorating, and utterly liberating.” Smith is a good storyteller. Written with Welsh writer Will Millard, his book flows smoothly, with just enough of the vernacular to give it personality.

In the second half of the book, Smith settles down on the shores of a remote Scottish loch, builds a cabin, plants a garden. Compared with his nomadic adventures, this is a downright civilized life, even though it’s an eight-mile walk to the nearest road, nine miles more to collect his mail and nine miles beyond that to town for groceries.

He still has brushes with death — his cabin burns down; he endures tremendous storms and the coldest winters on Scottish record. But at this point the book morphs into a sort-of wilderness how-to guide: how to build a cabin, catch a fish, tap a birch tree, remove a tick.

Smith has been the subject of a documentary by a Glasgow filmmaker, making him possibly the most famous hermit in Britain. (Late in the book, he’s picked up hitchhiking by a guy who says, “I’ve seen you on the television!”) He has suffered a stroke and cancer but always returns to the cabin. “Living in civilization is hard for me,” he writes after one lengthy hospital stay.

So what has he learned, in a lifetime alone? His opinions about his life decisions remain firm: “I’ve spent the majority of my life living outside the conventions of mainstream society, and I’ll tell you what I think is weird, and it ain’t the hermit. It’s how entire generations of people have been conned into believing that there is only one way to live, and that’s on-grid, in deepening debt, working on products you’ll probably never use, to line the pockets of people you’ll never meet, just so you might be able to get enough money together to buy a load of crap you don’t need, or, if you’re lucky, have a holiday that takes you to a place, like where I live, for a week of the happiness I feel every day.”

Is he never lonely? Does he miss his family? Does he ever wish for a wife or a partner? How does he get through those long snowbound winters without going stir-crazy?

What we are left with is a love story to the mountains in the mist, the pulsating northern lights and the red deer at dawn. And to independence. Maybe that is enough.

Laurie Hertzel is a writer in Minnesota.

The Way of the Hermit

My Incredible 40 Years Living in the Wilderness

By Ken Smith and Will Millard

Hanover Square. 272 pp. Paperback, $20.99

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999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz Kindle Edition

• Print length 482 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Citadel Press
• Publication date December 31, 2019
• File size 37912 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07Q7XBV56
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Citadel Press; Illustrated edition (December 31, 2019)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 31, 2019
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 37912 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 482 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0806539372
• #26 in Jewish History (Kindle Store)
• #54 in Jewish Holocaust History
• #56 in History eBooks of Women

About the author

Heather dune macadam.

Heather Dune Macadam’s calling seems to be to write about lost girls of the Holocaust. She is the acclaimed author of the international best seller, 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz, as well as being the producer/director of the documentary film 999. 999 has been translated into 16 languages to date.

Her first book, Rena’s Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz, was a memoir co-authored with Rena Kornreich Gelissen. Rena’s Promise started Heather Dune on this journey of working with young women who had been on the first transport. Director of the Rena’s Promise Foundation, Macadam also sits on the advisory board of the Cities of Peace Auschwitz.

Her work has been recognized by Yad Vashem in the UK, the USC Shoah Foundation, the National Museum of Jewish History in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the Memorial Museum of Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. Her writing has been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian on NPR, and other major media outlets. She divides her time between New York and Herefordshire, England. Visit 999thefirstwomeninauschwitz on Facebook, @heatherdune on Twitter, or at www.999themovie.com.

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Romance Novels That Bring the Heat

Our columnist on sexy, swoony new releases.

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By Olivia Waite

Some authors try to make their craft invisible to the reader; others, like Chencia Higgins, write to steal the spotlight. In A LITTLE KISSING BETWEEN FRIENDS (Carina, 303 pp., paperback, $18.99), we meet a Black Sapphic stud music producer and a femme fat bisexual dancer at Houston’s premier strip club, Sanity. Cyn Tha Starr (a.k.a. Poppa) mixes the tracks, and Juleesa (a.k.a. Jucee) makes the dance videos that turn them into viral hits. They’re best friends and absolutely, definitely, not even a little bit in love with each other. Until they start hooking up, that is.

Romance loves a couple who have to overcome a messy shared history: Lizzie and Darcy, Harry and Sally, and now Poppa and Jucee. They know each other so well, yet somehow not at all. It’s a wonderful, low-stakes ride as each relearns who their partner really is.

Time-travel romances are often a fantasy of knowledge: Someone ventures back into history and dazzles the rubes by understanding germ theory, or else a historical figure is brought forward and gapes at the marvels of present-day technology. They can also be fantasies of power, as Kaliane Bradley’s THE MINISTRY OF TIME (Avid Reader Press, 339 pp., $28.99) makes clear.

When the Arctic explorer Cmdr. Graham Gore is hauled into the 21st century along with a handful of other expats, their government handlers — bridges, as they’re called — are granted an extraordinary amount of control. Bridges are not only responsible for explaining modernity, they also share quarters with their expats, monitoring their bodily functions, mental health, internet searches, geographic movements and political adjustments.

But of course, when you have two strangers with secrets trapped in a house together, someone’s bound to ruin it by falling in love.

Gore’s bridge and eventual lover is a protagonist whose name we never learn, like the second Mrs. de Winter from “Rebecca,” or the narrator of R.F. Kuang’s “Babel.” Bradley’s story blends the claustrophobic passion of the one with the bloody anticolonial critique of the other. It’s a bold, uneasy romance that defines history as both something we make, and something that makes us. We are implicated — in every sense of the word — in the events of our particular era. Or, as Gore’s bridge puts it, “If you ever fall in love, you’ll be a person who was in love for the rest of your life.”

Finally, we have two short historicals in a series by Bronwyn Scott, where Victorian friends widowed by a catastrophic flood find second chances at romance. LIAISON WITH THE CHAMPAGNE COUNT (Harlequin, 280 pp., paperback, $7.25) sees the gin heiress Lady Emma Luce banished from her home by her late husband’s horrid heirs. Left with only the Champagne chateau where they honeymooned — we should all be so destitute — Emma decides to use her marketing savvy to turn the languishing winery into a success.

Standing in her way is Julien Archambeau, the chateau’s capable land steward and the former Comte de Rocroi. Descended from the vineyard’s pre-revolution owners, Julien has made it his dream to regain his family’s estate — even if it means undermining Emma’s power. She may have legal title, and she can fire him at any time, but he has the weight of winemaking expertise, not to mention experience with fussy local politics. This is an elemental little masterpiece, where earth and fire and water become terroir and passion and tears. The cameo from Madame Clicquot herself is the cherry on top.

In the sequel, ALLIANCE WITH THE NOTORIOUS LORD (Harlequin, 265 pp., paperback, $7.99), Emma’s swift second marriage baffles her friend Antonia Lytton-Popplewell. Like Emma, she has a business enterprise — the department store her late husband envisioned — and a partner who’s keeping things from her: Cullen Allardyce, the estranged son of a marquess. Cullen once fled scandal for life in the tropics, and now he’s eager to get back to the warmth and waters of Tahiti. It’s only his growing admiration for Antonia that’s slowing his return.

There’s a long sordid history of using “exotic” locales to give white romance heroes flavor, but this book leans more “tropical beaches are superior to London chill” and less “I made my fortune in India.”

One of the great games of romance is seeing writers riff on a premise, like a classical composer improvising variations on a theme. Where Emma’s vineyard blossomed into an Edenic refuge in the first book, Antonia’s department store is an anchor, chaining her to the past and threatening to drag her under. But in both stories momentum comes from the pursuit of knowledge: Our heroines are exploring a new world and new selves, and are also driven to delve into the heroes’ secrets. Because mystery can encourage a romance, but only full understanding can complete one. You’ll know, if you’re in love.

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