In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin
by Eric Larson
From the Book
“Like most people, I acquired my initial sense of the era from books and photographs that left me with the impression that the world of then had no color, only gradients of gray and black. My two main protagonists, however, encountered the flesh-and-blood reality, while also managing the routine obligations of daily life. Every morning they moved through a city hung with immense banners of red, white, and black; they sat at the same outdoor cafés as did the lean, black-suited members of Hitler’s SS, and now and then they caught sight of Hitler himself, a smallish man in a large, open Mercedes. But they also walked each day past homes with balconies lush with red geraniums; they shopped in the city’s vast department stores, held tea parties, and breathed deep the spring fragrances of the Tiergarten, Berlin’s main park. They knew Goebbels and Göring as social acquaintances with whom they dined, danced, and joked—until, as their first year reached its end, an event occurred that proved to be one of the most significant in revealing the true character of Hitler and that laid the keystone for the decade to come. For both father and daughter it changed everything.” ― Erik Larson, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin
S.J. Tagliareni Review
Eric Larson has the unique ability of making historical facts become fascinating pieces of information that rivet the reader. At time the writing was so enveloping that I felt as though I was reading a masterful novel. I have been a student of the era of In the Garden of Beasts for over forty years, and found new insights contained in this brilliant book. I would recommend this book without reservation.
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Viktor Frankl: A Life Worth Living
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Anna Redsand writes about people and ideas that have had a significant impact on society. Her first book, Viktor Frankl: A Life Worth Living (Clarion, 2006), received awards from the Society of School Librarians International, the National Council for the Social Studies, the Children’s Book Council, Bank Street Best Children’s Books, and the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age. The book has been translated into Korean. Anna has used Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy in counseling high-risk youth.
WHY I WROTE A BOOK ABOUT VIKTOR FRANKL
Viktor Frankl: A Life Worth Living (Clarion Books, 2006) is my first book. It is a Young Adult biography of a man who survived four concentration camps in the Holocaust. He believed that people could survive almost any situation or meet it with dignity, if they could find meaning in it. He wrote, “Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” After his release from the camps, Viktor Frankl wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, a deeply moving and hopeful account of his ordeal. The book has inspired millions of people around the world.
As a school counselor, I have read and re-read Man’s Search for Meaning for my own inspiration. I told parts of Viktor’s story to my students when they told me about situations that gave them feelings of hopelessness. I hoped it would inspire them as it had me. It was on the day that I helped one of my students into an ambulance that I decided I would write Frankl’s biography for young people. Tommy (not the boy’s real name) was in eighth grade at the time, and he felt there was no future for him in our small New Mexico community. He was quietly destroying his life by sniffing inhalants. As I walked back into the school on that beautiful spring day, I knew that I would start writing this book that summer. Tommy returned to school with a different outlook after a month in treatment, and we had several good talks about his future. He went on to high school the next year.
“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.” ~~Viktor Frankl
To order a copy of Viktor Frankl: A Life Worth Living visit Amazon.
S.J. Tagliareni Review
I believe it is important for the younger generations to have an awareness of the Holocaust. My colleague Anna Redsand’s book is an excellent portrayal of the period. I would recommend her book for adolescents without qualification.
S. J. Tagliareni 