Review (PDF) The House In Prague: How A Stolen House Helped An Immigrant Girl Find Her Way Home
A cherished house, the family it sheltered, and the true meaning of home.1939: the Nazis have invaded Prague. Little Anna huddles with her doll in the corner of a train car while a German officer shrieks, “You are Jews!” Fleeing for their lives, her family has abandoned their elegant house near Prague Castle, bringing their life of privilege to an abrupt halt.In this memoir that reads like a novel, we meet Anna’s shining and beautiful opera singer mother, her prominent lawyer father, and their circle of friends that includes Albert Schweitzer and the family of Czech President Thomas Masaryk.Through Anna’s eyes, we relive magical Christmases, summers in the country, and a terrifying trip to Nazi Dresden that changes everything. We experience the family’s escape, their voyage to Ellis Island, and Anna's struggle to become an American girl in a city teeming with immigrants and prejudice. Post-war life brings cherished Holocaust survivors and their harrowing stories.After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, Anna’s family sues for the return of their house in Prague. But will they prevail? And if they do, what then?The House in Prague is richly illustrated with pictures and artifacts from the author’s family archive. Written with straightforward, lyrical clarity, the members of her family and the many famous musicians, authors, and poets that pass through their lives come alive for the reader. A gripping story on its own merits, this tale of war, love, and loss dares us to think about the immigrant experience in fresh ways.Index included."An exquisite rumination on history, loss, and love. Anna Perlberg's voice is a luminous guide to the heart of home - hers, but also, as is true of all great stories, ours." (Caroline Heller, author of Reading Claudius: A Memoir in Two Parts)
File Size: 8083 KB
Print Length: 216 pages
Publisher: Golden Alley Press; 1 edition (June 15, 2016)
Publication Date: June 15, 2016
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B01H6106Y0
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #10,849 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #16 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > World > Jewish > Holocaust #26 in Books > History > World > Jewish > Holocaust #148 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs
"The House in Prague," is the story of Anna Nessy Perlberg’s beautiful home in Prague, how she fled in 1939, and the epic journey of her life in America as a young girl who barely spoke English. Only the first quarter of the book is about her life in Prague (she left at age 7). She came from a an extraordinary family, wealthy, educated, and talented. Her mother, Julia Nessy, was an opera singer. She had perfect pitch and could sing for Schoenberg and Berg; she knew Josef Suk (Dvorak's son-in-law) and George Szell, whom she and Anna visited when he gave a Czech music concert in New York. Julia played duets in her home with Alfred Schweitzer (who was also a Bach scholar and musician). They were friends with Thomas Masaryk, the first Czech president (after WWI) and his family, some of whom Anna came to know as part of the Czech community in New York.And what a home it was. Her father was a wealthy lawyer, also musical, and the large house had two concert grand pianos and two harps. They had a staff of a cook, a governess, maids, a driver. The book is really centered on that house and her memories of the people in it, and their fates in America. Her father was Jewish, and the tale of their flight across Germany and into Holland with little Anna clutching her doll is vivid and terrifying. Half his family died in the camps; he left just days before they came for him.But there is more here about the extraordinary immigrant experience in America. As a little girl in New York, Anna learned English largely from memorizing popular songs and radio dramas. And there is a lot here about her education, her going to Columbia University, meeting writer and poet Mark Perlberg, and going with her new husband to Tokyo, as he was an army reporter during the Korean war.
The House in Prague: How a Stolen House Helped an Immigrant Girl Find Her Way Home Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry Home Security: Top 10 Home Security Strategies to Protect Your House and Family Against Criminals and Break-ins (home security monitor, home security system diy, secure home network) Out With It: How Stuttering Helped Me Find My Voice Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry Tiny Houses: Tiny House Plans & Interior Design Ideas For Living Small But Feeling Big: 22 FREE TINY HOUSE PLANS (Tiny Houses, Tiny House Living, Tiny House, Small Home) New Cosmopolis; A Book of Images. Intimate New York. Certain European Cities Before the War: Vienna, Prague, Little Holland, Belgium Etchings, Madrid, The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague Prague Counterpoint (Zion Covenant Book 2) Gardening: Air-Cleaning House Plants to Purify Your Home - DIY Home, Home Gardening & Indoor Gardening (Healthy Home, Gardening for Beginners, Container ... Hacks, Healthier You, Outdoor Gardening) Feng Shui: Wellness and Peace- Interior Design, Home Decorating and Home Design (peace, home design, feng shui, home, design, home decor, prosperity) Tiny House Living Box Set (5 in 1): A Step-by-Step Guide to Living in a Smaller Home Plus Decorating and Organizing Ideas and Hacks (Tine House & Organize Your Home) Mom's House, Dad's House for Kids: Feeling at Home in One Home or Two Interactive Word Find: Easter (Word Find For Kindle) How To Find Free Kindle Books: Find free books for Kindle with this resource of over 65 current sites dedicated to free ebooks! How Did We Find Out About Superconductivity (How Did We Find Out Series) Find Gold! How to Find Gold Using Proven Sampling Methods The Pope's Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI's Campaign to Stop Hitler Open: How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination and Helped Invent Modern Computing How Charles Atlas Got Me Through a Bone Marrow Transplant: (and helped beat an almost unbeatable cancer)
