“The
Luck of the Weissensteiners”, the first in my Three Nations Trilogy, in
November. The story concerns a Jewish family in Slovakia in the 1930s and 1940s
and their luck through the ongoing changes - politically, culturally and
ethnically. It hopefully highlights some lesser known details of how unknown
and very sudden changes can affected people’s lives.
The theme of Nationality, and what defines it, is one of the threads that connect the trilogy, which is neither chronological nor sequential.
I was inspired to write the stories by some family sagas and research into the era.
The theme of Nationality, and what defines it, is one of the threads that connect the trilogy, which is neither chronological nor sequential.
I was inspired to write the stories by some family sagas and research into the era.
In the sleepy town of Bratislava in 1933 a romantic girl
falls for a bookseller from Berlin. Greta Weissensteiner, daughter of a Jewish
weaver, slowly settles into life with the Winkelmeier clan. The political
climate and slow disintegration of the multi-cultural society in Czechoslovakia
becomes more complex and affects relations between the couple and their
families.
The story follows their lot through the war with its torment, destruction and its unpredictability - and the equally hard times after.
From the moment that Greta Weissensteiner enters the bookstore where Wilhelm Winkelmeier works, and entrances him with her good looks and serious ways, I was hooked. But this is no ordinary romance; in tact it is not a romance at all, but a powerful, often sad, Holocaust story. What makes The Luck of the Weissensteiners so extraordinary is the chance Christoph Fischer gives his readers to consider the many different people who were never in concentration camps, never in the military, yet who nonetheless had their own indelible Holocaust experiences. Set in the fascinating area of Bratislava, this is a wide-ranging, historically accurate exploration of the connections between social location, personal integrity and, as the title says, luck. I cared about every one of this novel's characters and continued to think about them long after I'd finished reading.
-- Andrea Steiner, University of California Santa Cruz
The Luck of the Weissensteiners is an epic saga set in wartime Eastern Europe. It follows the lives of two families - one Jewish, one Catholic - and their entwined survival amidst the backdrop of the second world war; first the fascist then the communist invasion and occupation of Slovakia, and the horror of the consequences of war. The reader is transported to a world of deception, fear, distrust and betrayal, alongside enduring love and family drama. Weissensteiners is a magnificent tale of human survival.
The story follows their lot through the war with its torment, destruction and its unpredictability - and the equally hard times after.
From the moment that Greta Weissensteiner enters the bookstore where Wilhelm Winkelmeier works, and entrances him with her good looks and serious ways, I was hooked. But this is no ordinary romance; in tact it is not a romance at all, but a powerful, often sad, Holocaust story. What makes The Luck of the Weissensteiners so extraordinary is the chance Christoph Fischer gives his readers to consider the many different people who were never in concentration camps, never in the military, yet who nonetheless had their own indelible Holocaust experiences. Set in the fascinating area of Bratislava, this is a wide-ranging, historically accurate exploration of the connections between social location, personal integrity and, as the title says, luck. I cared about every one of this novel's characters and continued to think about them long after I'd finished reading.
-- Andrea Steiner, University of California Santa Cruz
The Luck of the Weissensteiners is an epic saga set in wartime Eastern Europe. It follows the lives of two families - one Jewish, one Catholic - and their entwined survival amidst the backdrop of the second world war; first the fascist then the communist invasion and occupation of Slovakia, and the horror of the consequences of war. The reader is transported to a world of deception, fear, distrust and betrayal, alongside enduring love and family drama. Weissensteiners is a magnificent tale of human survival.
You can Buy “The Luck of the Weissensteiners”
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