Now Available – A New Edition of Esfir is Alive
Esfir is Alive by Andrea Simon (Bedazzled Ink Publishing) is now available in a new edition with an arresting redesigned cover and relevant updates. In today’s global atmosphere of historical misinformation, readers of all ages can learn of Eastern Europe’s growing pre-war antisemitism, as well as the tragic destruction of Jewish life. Since the book’s initial publication in 2016 (following the author’s 2002 groundbreaking memoir Bashert: A Granddaughter’s Holocaust Quest), Esfir is Alive remains the preeminent recreation of the massacres (nearly half of Holocaust victims) in what is now Belarus and is a perfect vehicle for educational enlightenment.
Told through the voice of a young Jewish heroine, compared by critics to Anne Frank, Esfir is Alive is the fictionalized story of the real Esfir Manevich, the only known recorded survivor of the Brona Gora massacres of 50,000 Belorussian Jews in 1942. At the time, she was only twelve years old. The historical facts, including the killings, are based on painstaking authorial research.
Chronicling Esfir’s life in Poland and Russia during the interwar period ― a time of great political, social, and literary ferment ― Esfir faces antisemitism in public school and moves in with her charming aunt who runs a boardinghouse in the bustling Polish city of Brest. Being younger than the other boarders, Esfir struggles to find a place in her new life while worrying about her diminishing role in the family she left behind.
As the years pass, Esfir experiences the bombing of her hometown, Kobrin, during the German invasion of 1939. When the Russians overtake the area, Esfir sees many of her socialist relatives and friends become disillusioned by the harsh restrictions. During the German occupation, Esfir and her family are enclosed in a ghetto where they develop heartbreaking methods of survival.
In the summer of 1942, the ghetto is liquidated, and the inhabitants are forced onto cattle cars destined for the killing fields — and Esfir must face unimaginable horror. She miraculously escapes and spends the rest of the war living in a convent, pretending to be a gentile. After Liberation in 1944, Esfir revisits the cities of her youth, desperately trying to locate missing friends and family. Eventually, Esfir settles in Israel, trying to make a life out of memory’s ashes.
Fans of The Book Thief and The Diary of Anne Frank will love Esfir is Alive, which has also become a classic.
Andrea Simon is the author of the historical memoir Bashert: A Granddaughter’s Holocaust Quest, the novel Esfir Is Alive, the novel-in-stories Floating in the Neversink and is the editor and contributing author of the anthology Here’s the Story … Nine Women Write Their Lives.
The recipient of numerous literary awards, Andrea holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York where she has taught writing. The mother of a grown daughter, she lives in New York City with her husband.
A reading guide is reprinted in the book. Also included is a glossary of Yiddish words and phrases.