A Rural Audience Responds to our Authors

On May 9, Rita Benn and Phil Barr traveled to Lakeview Michigan for a book talk at Tamarack District Library. A year and half ago, two other authors presented stories from our book here and the librarian was interested to have another set of authors present again to their community during the week of Yom Hashoah remembrance. Several of the same community members showed up a second time. The audience sat rapt and with tears as Phil read the excerpt  from his chapter in which he reflected on his father's death. One audience participant came up to us after the talk and quietly shared how grateful she felt to us for writing our book and speaking of our parents'  experiences to the folks in this rural part of the State. She described that she spent her whole life in this area, did not travel and would never have learned about our parent's resilience and trauma or their lived atrocities, had we not visited. She reported that she not only bought a book for herself but for her sister to read as well, and like many people to whom we have presented, she discussed how she needed to read the book in small bites, absorbing each story one at a time rather than sitting down to read them all at once.  

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