We Must Not Think of Ourselves

March 1, 2023

Asked to help secretly document events in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he's forced to reside, Adam Paskow includes flatmate Sala Wiskoff among his subjects. Though she is married with two children, they fall in love. Then he discovers a possible escape route from the ghetto and must decide whom he can save. The New York Times best-selling Grodstein (A Friend of the Family) was inspired by an actual archive code-named Oneg Shabbat. With a 40,000-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2023

The latest novel from Grodstein (Our Short History) tells the story of Adam Paskow and the efforts of the historical Oneg Shabbat group to keep a record of those living in occupied Warsaw's Jewish ghetto. Adam is a Jewish educator with relentless optimism in spite of the Nazi invasion. Having been swindled by his father-in-law, he finds himself living in a small apartment with nine other people, all of whom have been relocated to Poland's old Jewish district and locked in. Emanuel Ringelblum, the real-life archivist behind Oneg Shabbat, finds Adam teaching children English in secret and recruits him to start documenting his life and the lives of those around him. Grodstein brings to life a critical piece of history with her strong sense of place and complex characters who are determined to live their lives despite daily threats of violence and dehumanization. The Oneg Shabbat archive contains vital first-hand accounts of Jewish subjugation, and it is represented beautifully in Grodstein's first historical novel, supported by her intensive research and the book's dynamic relationships that show the value of everyday intimacies. VERDICT Recommended for readers who enjoy stories from all time periods about the extraordinary actions of ordinary people.--Cate Triola

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September 4, 2023
Grodstein (Our Short History) draws on archival records for an eloquent story of the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. Adam Paskow, a childless widower, teaches English to a group of children in the ghetto, where he lives in a cramped apartment with two other families, having been forced there from the spacious flat he once shared with his wife in the city’s Mokotow district. Because of his language skills, he’s tasked by Emanuel Ringelblum, a historical figure who organized relief agencies for Jews during the war, with interviewing their fellow residents and compiling an archive of their experiences. The novel is formed mainly from these interviews along with Paskow’s observations about how life has changed after the German occupation. His interview subjects include 11-year-old Fillip Lescovec, who dreams of becoming a construction worker, and 48-year-old Emil Wiskoff, who can trace his family back to its Vilna roots in 1648. There’s not much of a plot, though Grodstein makes her persecuted characters achingly human, such as when Paskow has a secret, life-affirming affair with one of the married women who shares his apartment. The story doesn’t shy away from the period’s horror, however; there are wrenching scenes of Nazis beating and killing men, women, and children on the streets. This will stay with readers.

September 1, 2023
Inspired by actual accounts, professor and author Grodstein's (Our Short History, 2017) latest novel considers humanity amid deplorable conditions. In late 1940, Adam Paskow is locked by the Nazis into the Warsaw Ghetto along with thousands of fellow Jews. Widowed before the war began, Adam remains friendly with his Christian father-in-law, Henryk, who nonetheless dupes Adam into accepting crowded quarters promised to two families. Adam teaches English to a motley group of students and is invited by the group Oneg Shabbat to contribute to an archive of daily life and profiles of residents, introducing readers to his nine flatmates. As circumstances deteriorate, Adam witnesses haunting instances of downtrodden people both remaining optimistic and succumbing to despair. Rumors of lucky people bartering for Gentile papers bolster hope of escape in an increasingly desperate milieu. Adam must decide if he has the fortitude to pursue his own salvation or abandon those he cares about. Devotees of Holocaust fiction will appreciate this moving chronicle, a worthy tribute to those who fought to survive the unthinkable.

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September 15, 2023
An English teacher documents life in the Warsaw ghetto. Before the Nazis invaded, 42-year-old Adam Paskow was a secular Jew. He lived in Warsaw with his cat, taught at a Polish school, and mourned his late wife, a wealthy Pole who died too young. After the Nazis invade, he is forced out of his home and into the Jewish ghetto where he shares a small apartment with two families (though the kids often sleep on the roof or in the sewers or hallways). He works in a soup kitchen and gives English lessons to children in the basement of a bombed-out movie theater, teaching them poems he has memorized, due to the lack of books. Early on, Adam is given a notebook from a real, historical organization called Oneg Shabbat to write everything he can about life under the Nazis for posterity. His account--this book--is moving and tender. "The truth is," Adam writes, "it was hard to know what to think or how to behave, and I spent an awful lot of time either staring into space or digging myself into the deep hole of memory." But Adam's memories of his fairly average life before the war provide a contrast to the intentional, increasing meagerness of the life allowed in the ghetto. His interviews with his students and housemates offer a wealth of distinct histories, subtle but potent rebukes to the cruel and useless labeling perpetuated by the Nazi regime. Adam has the poetic optimism of a person for whom the worst has already happened, who is content for a while to count small blessings, but he is neither foolish nor passive. When risking death by missing curfew in order to walk a wayward student home, he notes, "there were corpses on the street, covered with newspapers that fluttered in the wind. We pretended not to see them." Delicate, warm account of a brutal, cold time, grounded in humanity, small details, and unwavering clarity.

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