Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
“Supposedly, it was harder to escape Nazi laws in small towns where everyone knew you. It was easier to “untertauchen” (submerge or remain anonymous) in larger towns. So my father took a job teaching at a Jewish school outside Hanover. It did not save us from being transported to Buchenwald.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“Josef Mengele, the barbaric German doctor, strode into our barracks to inspect the living conditions of its 800 prisoners. He looked like a movie star in his high boots, white gloves, and impeccable uniform. ‘Good afternoon, ladies. Are you comfortable?’ he asked politely. No one said a word. The penalty for addressing this terrifying figure could be death.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
As Halloween approaches, I’m chilled that my first ghost story, “Famine,” will be published in the CultureCult Magazine haunted house anthology HAUS. In “Famine,” a single mother of Irish descent, worried how she’ll feed her daughter in the aftermath of the 2008 economic collapse, is visited by the ghosts of two immigrants who lived in her Bronx apartment: one whose daughter died in 1847 during the Irish potato famine and another who came with her daughter in 1970 during The Troubles. Given how I strive to “nail the ending” in my writing, I was especially gratified when the editor wrote, “The last line brought me to tears.” Read more in SHORT STORIES.
Thanks to Booksweet in Ann Arbor for hosting a wonderful event on October 21, 2022 that featured four local authors, including me reading an excerpt from One Person’s Loss. Thanks as well to the audience for their warm reception and thoughtful questions, and to my fellow authors — vegan cookbook writer Vicki Brett-Gach, and poets Jihyun Yun and Frances Kai-Hwa Wang — for their wise and funny words. Read more about my book in NOVELS. Support independent bookstores in your own community. They’re an irreplaceable asset. Why writers write: “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn” (Anne Frank). Why writers read: “Reading brings us unknown friends”(Honoré de Balzac).
“My brother and uncle were in a 300–member underground Minsk resistance that saved condemned Jewish prisoners. At night, couriers led small groups into the forest. The weakest dropped dead on the way. But of 100,000 prisoners, 10,000 made it into the woods.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Automobile pioneer Henry Ford blamed an international Jewish conspiracy for the world’s financial woes (as well as Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and making candy bars less tasty). He held Jews responsible for WW1 and WW2, both of which he opposed. Yet, Ford built the Willow Run bomber plant that made B-24s for the Allies. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“During the roundup, people hid in the basement or inside furniture, but the Nazis strafed the place with shots and several were killed. A soldier with a flashlight approached the table under which my father and brother were hiding. My father kissed my brother, prepared to die, but the flashlight’s bulb burned out just before the soldier reached them and he went away.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
My Amazon and Goodreads review of Prepare for Departure by Mark Chesnut (Rating 5) – Mark Chesnut’s Prepare for Departure is a romance memoir about his dual love for aviation and his mother. Chestnut is an erstwhile misfit who fits in the air and on the page, a seasoned traveler as well as a talented author. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I appreciate his ability to simultaneously focus on characters worth caring about, and the complex settings they inhabit. Written with devotion, humor, and honesty, Prepare for Departure regales readers with stories of Chesnut’s outsider status: A flight-obsessed child among earth-bound classmates; a boy with conservative southern roots living in the liberal north; a gay Caucasian man with an Hispanic husband in a straight white world; a fatherless son raised by a feisty mother who was wary of breaching the norms she herself had escaped. “Time traveling” between childhood memories and his mother’s final decline, Chesnut’s memoir invites readers aboard to laugh and grieve with him. Fasten your heart lest it burst out of your rib cage by the time you land.
Prejudice against Jews was widespread among leading Americans, including aviation hero Charles Lindbergh. In 1941, after his notorious “Who are the war agitators?” speech, which echoed Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda and accused Jews of conspiring to force America into WW2, he was branded a Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite. History shows America failed to end the war sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“I didn’t have a typical Semitic face, but my black curly hair betrayed me. Just after my (Aryan) stepfather smuggled my mother and me out of the ghetto, I was taken to a barber who shaved my head. It was called the ‘zero haircut.’ I wasn’t his first client. Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
