Feb. 25, 1937: Bob Schieffer born.
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Q&A with Victoria Redel
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| Victoria Redel, photo by Marion Ettlinger |
Victoria Redel is the author most recently of the novel Before Everything. Her other books include The Border of Truth and Loverboy. She is on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, and her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Granta.com and Harvard Review.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Before Everything,
and for your five main characters?
A: Deborah, I had been working on another novel when my best
friend since I was seven passed away. After a period of deep silence, it became
clear I wanted to write about friendship, about how a community of friends
through life manage each other's life changes-- death being that most final
change.
The characters emerged as I began writing. I knew I wanted a
gang of childhood friends with all the sweetness and complication of people
knowing one another through many phases and life events. And the rest of the
characters--new friends, ex-husbands, the hospice nurse--all began to emerge
through the writing.
Q: Did you write the book in the order in which it appears,
or did you move the sections around as you worked?
A: I wrote the book in big and small chunks and, yes, moved
sections around to start to shape the book's structure. It was the way I found
the rhythm overall voice of the novel.
That said, after a bit, I wrote the chunks mostly knowing
where they'd fit. The more I wrote the book, the clearer it became that I
wanted to give many of the characters a voice.
I saw the book as moving a bit kaleidoscopically which made
it all more complicated. But hopefully it's interesting. I've always
worked in a collaged style though I long to be a writer who works in a neat,
linear fashion.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it
signify for you?
A: "Before Everything" hopefully speaks to that moment when
all things are possible. That time--which perhaps doesn't ever purely exist--
when you have that deep inhale that gives strength for all that follows.
Q: What do you think the novel says about female
friendships?
A: It's really all about friendship--and the strength that
is woven into the way women care for one another. I believe that the women in
the novel bear witness to one another's lives. Some have to learn how to accept
that which they don't want to accept, primarily Anna's choice to stop
treatment.
There are many women in this book and so there's room for so
much--love, history, jealousy, change, physical care, fear, secrets, love. I
wanted to create a big cast of complicated characters--not always likeable,
often struggling, but enduring and loving.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: It seems I'm back to writing poems. As it's turned out
after the long haul of a novel, I'm always grateful to return to making poems.
I love the compression, knocking one word up against another and that the arc
of a poem is brief.
I'm letting myself mess around and see what these poems are
pointing to. I'm throwing out a lot of them but hopefully some will
withstand the revisions.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Friday, February 23, 2018
Q&A with Karen Perry
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| Paul Perry and Karen Gillece, photo by Edmund Ross Photography |
Karen Perry, the pen name of writers Karen Gillece and Paul Perry, is the author of the new novel Girl Unknown. Their other books include The Innocent Sleep and Only We Know. They are both based in Dublin. This interview was conducted with Karen Gillece.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Girl Unknown?
A: When Paul and I were thinking about a subject for our
next book, I remembered a conversation I had had in a pub many years
previously. I was meeting a guy I used to work with for a catch-up. We knew
each other well – I had met his wife on several occasions, he knew my boyfriend
at the time.
After a couple of drinks, he let slip that he had a child
from a relationship that pre-dated his marriage, a child his wife knew nothing
about. It was fairly shocking news to me, but more than anything, I couldn’t
help thinking that the day would eventually arrive when his child would come
looking for him, and how would he explain this deception to his wife?
I lost touch with the guy not long after that, and his
revelation got buried in the back of my mind. It was only when Paul and I began
discussing our ideas that the memory resurfaced. It became the seed of the plot
for Girl Unknown.
Q: You tell the story from the alternating perspectives of
the married couple David and Caroline Connolly's alternating perspectives. Did
you write the novel in the order in which it appears, or did you move things
around as you wrote?
A: When we started work on the book, we initially planned to
write a single narrative, looking at the story solely from David’s perspective.
So the initial draft of the opening “David” chapters, starting with his first
encounter with Zoe, were actually written by me.
It wasn’t until we were some way into the book that we
realized that the story would be richer and more complex if we were to include
Caroline’s perspective. This necessitated some reordering, as well as the
creation of whole new “Caroline” chapters.
The book went through several drafts with input from our
editors on both sides of the Atlantic. Ironically, the prologue was the very
last thing we wrote!
Q: How do the two of you collaborate on your books? Can you
describe your writing process?
A: At the heart of our writing process is conversation. We
discuss the idea a lot, tossing different ideas back and forth. Once we have
settled on the bones of a plot, we do some work on character.
Generally speaking, we each take a character and offer
alternating perspectives with each new chapter, although this is not always the
case (see above). We do a sort of relay-write, whereby we send each other our
chapters as soon as they are complete.
We try to meet regularly to offer feedback. After a first
draft is complete, we swap over and re-write each other’s chapters.
Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?
A: In the crime/thriller genre, I love Tana French (who also
happens to be a close friend of mine). I adore Daphne du Maurier and John le
Carre, and I think that Jane Harper is a terrific new talent (The Dry was my
favourite thriller last year).
Outside the genre, I love Sarah Waters, Hilary Mantel, Tim
Winton, Michael Chabon, Rose Tremain, William Trevor…. The list goes on and on!
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Paul and I are working on a screenplay for the movie
adaptation of our first novel together: The Innocent Sleep. It’s been optioned
by a terrific Irish production company called Subotica. This is our first foray
into the screenplay world, and while it’s very different to novel-writing,
we’re finding the process exciting and fun!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I think that’s about it!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Q&A with Dina Gold
Dina Gold is the author of Stolen Legacy: Nazi Theft and the Quest for Justice at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin. She is a senior
editor at Moment magazine, and worked as a reporter and producer for the BBC.
Born in London, she now lives in Washington, D.C.
Q:
You write that as a child you would hear stories from your grandmother about
the building in Berlin your family had owned. What ultimately made you decide
to search for that building?
A:
I really loved my grandmother Nellie Wolff. She would weave wonderful stories
of her life in Berlin that were very tantalizing to a young girl. Nellie’s
daughter, my mother, had also enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle up to the age of 11,
when Hitler came to power and the family fled.
My
mother always discounted Nellie’s stories. She said Nellie was a fantasist, her
claims that the family had once owned a huge building were probably unfounded and
that we should look to the future, not the past. I had a very different
attitude. Yes, Nellie might have been mistaken but … it was also possible
that perhaps she wasn’t. I absolutely had to find out!
When
the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, my parents were totally set against my starting a
restitution claim. Nellie had died 12 years earlier, leaving no documents or
photographs relating to the building, not even its address.
My
father would say, “You can't fight the German government, forget it.” The only
person who supported me was my husband, Simon.
Q:
How did you feel when you started doing some research and realized your
grandmother’s stories could be true?
A:
It was exciting and gratifying that my hunch seemed to be right. As I started to uncover more and more
evidence it started to look as if Nellie had not been telling fairy stories. I determined
that I couldn’t give up!
I
found the building in what had been the Soviet sector, just behind the Berlin
Wall, two blocks from Checkpoint Charlie.
It
might sound like an exaggeration to say that I was driven by “the burden of
history…” but actually it is not.
Professor
Walter Reich, former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, wrote in a
testimonial for my book: “The Holocaust - the project of exterminating Europe's
Jews - was an immense act of murder. But it was also an immense act of theft.
The murder was, of course, the incomparably greater crime. The dead could never
be brought back to life.”
He
is, of course, absolutely right.
Stolen
Legacy is not directly about the genocide - which was unparalleled,
unforgettable and totally unforgivable.
In a similar vein to that of the movie Woman in Gold, about the fight to
reclaim a Klimt painting, Stolen Legacy is about the fight for restitution of a
huge building in central Berlin.
Q:
How long did your effort take to obtain restitution?
A:
The case was concluded in January 1996. In round terms it took just over five
years.
Q:
What are some of the things that surprised you as you learned more about your
family?
A:
During my investigation to find enough evidence to present a legal claim, I
discovered just how successful the international H. Wolff fur company had
been.
The
family had tried desperately hard to hold onto the building, which had
been the company headquarters. The paperwork I found revealed exactly what had
happened, the process of the forced sale to the Reichsbahn (German railways),
how the property had been used during the war and what the Communists did with
the building when it was inside the territory of the German Democratic Republic
(East Germany).
I
visited the New York Public Library and discovered some old editions of a
publication called “Fur Trade Review.” I looked at three years’ worth – from
1908-1910. This magazine is no longer published, but these issues offer a vivid
portrayal of the once vibrant fur trade that flourished across North America in
the early part of the last century. European dealers would visit the United
States and establish business links here.
To
my amazement I found many H. Wolff advertisements and photos of the company’s latest
designs …not only coats but also stoles, muffs, hats and assorted accessories –
all made from fur. It was yet further evidence of what a prestigious fashion
house it had been.
The
librarians at the New York Public Library were perfectly happy for me to take
photos.
Q:
In addition to the historical aspects of the story, this is a very personal
book. How did you balance your roles as journalist and family member as you
worked on the book?
A:
It’s interesting you ask that because a colleague who read the draft said to
me, “I would have written the story with much more emotion.” But I am not like
that. Being gushing and sentimental is not my style. I’m trained as a
journalist and to a large extent I have to put my feelings to one side.
I
was haunted by the terrible discoveries I made while doing research into the
fates of some of the people I wrote about. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
and the International Tracing Service (ITS), as well as many other archives I
consulted, have a wealth of material for historians.
The
Wolff family was comparatively fortunate. Not everyone in the family survived,
but my grandparents, my mother and her two siblings did. I never forget that
the theft of a building cannot be compared with losing family, friends and
indeed entire communities.
Q:
At what point did you decide to write a book about your family’s experiences?
A:
I kept talking about it all through the claim. But I had a full-time job at the
BBC, and three young children. Simon was working for the Financial Times and
traveling extensively. I was too busy, and I just couldn’t do it.
What
prompted me was that, in 2008, I left the BBC and came to the USA on a green
card because my husband had been offered a job in Washington, D.C.
I
brought all the case papers over. Simon said, “The children need to know their
family history, so sit down and write,” and that is what I did. A friend who is
a literary agent kept asking me to show her my draft. She really liked the
story. And that is how the American Bar Association came to publish Stolen
Legacy.
Q:
You've published an updated version of your book. What new material did you
research and report for the paperback?
In
the course of my research, I delved into the background of the Victoria
Insurance company – and its Nazi-era chairman, Dr. Kurt Hamann – which had
foreclosed on the Wolff family building in 1937 and handed it straight to the
Reichsbahn.
I
discovered that the Victoria Insurance, under Hamann’s leadership, was part of
a consortium insuring SS slave labor workshops at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and
Stutthof concentration camps. I managed to obtain the actual policy documents.
I
also found out a lot more about Dr. Hamann’s career, his wartime role and how
he was feted in the post war era.
I
already knew that the University of Mannheim, a very prestigious German
university, has a stiftung (foundation) named after Dr. Hamann!
Q:
What has the impact of this new material been so far?
I
asked Professor Dr. Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden, President of Mannheim University,
if he considers Dr. Hamann a suitable person to be honored in such a manner. I
have been in correspondence with him for the past two and a half years about
what should be done.
The
latest news is that a year ago, Prof. von Thadden told me that he had
commissioned a renowned German historian, Prof. Johannes Baehr, to conduct an
in-depth study into the life of Dr. Hamann. That report was initially due to be
delivered by end August 2017.
Prof.
Baehr apparently found “more than anticipated” and suggested he would be in a
position to “produce a first report before Christmas.” A decision would then be
taken about the future of the Dr. Kurt-Hamann Foundation.
However,
I have very recently been contacted once more by Prof. von Thadden who tells me
that the report by Prof. Baehr will take more time due to “unexpected
difficulties in the access to new material and the extent of the new material
itself.”
Apparently,
the latest date being proposed for submission by Prof. Baehr is end March.
Prof. von Thadden says he accepts that a further delay is necessary because
this is an important matter and “diligence takes precedence over speed.”
Q:
Anything else we should know?
A:
When you last interviewed me, I told you how I had been trying to get a plaque placed
on the building, explaining it was forcibly taken by the Nazis from its Jewish
owners. In December 2013, on behalf of then Transport Minister Dr. Peter
Ramsauer, an official e-mailed me: “I’ll arrange for the plaque to be produced
and affixed to the office building.” But
nothing happened.
In
Spring 2016 the BBC, my former employer, asked me to fly to Berlin to make a
short film about the story for broadcast across the UK on International
Holocaust Remembrance Day the following January 27.
I
flew to Berlin in May 2016 and was met at the building by officials only too
eager to help! The knowledge that a BBC film crew was coming had seemingly galvanized
them into action! And that’s how, in July 2016, I managed to have a plaque put
at the entrance to the building.
I
have spoken in cities across the USA about the story of Stolen Legacy and
everywhere I go I meet audience members who long to reclaim their own families’
stolen property all over Europe. It is a tragedy, and a scandal, that more than
70 years after the end of the war, thousands of people are still waiting for
some measure of restitution. Next month
I am off to speak at a conference in Munich.
And
finally … in the not too distant future there is going to be a Chinese language
edition of Stolen Legacy published by the Sichuan People's Publishing House. I
look forward to showing you a copy!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous version of this Q&A. Dina Gold will be speaking at the Temple Sinai Authors' Roundtable in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 24.
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