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Memoir / Judaica / Gay & Lesbian Studies

 

My Germany
A Jewish Writer Returns to the World His Parents Escaped
Lev Raphael



“Raphael contributes again to the genre of second-generation Holocaust literature in which he is a pioneer. . . . True to his other works, his book is powerful and captivating to the end, painting vivid pictures of his parents’ suffering, his hatred of Germany, and eventually his healing and reconciliation.”
Library Journal

Haunted by his parents’ horrific suffering and traumatic losses under Nazi rule, Lev Raphael grew up loathing everything German. Those feelings shaped his Jewish identity, his life, and his career. While researching his mother’s war years after her death, he discovers a distant relative living in the very city where she had worked in a slave labor camp, found freedom, and met his father. Soon after, Raphael is launched on book tours in Germany and, in the process, redefines himself as someone unafraid to face the past and let it go.

This is a photo of Lev Raphael. He is wearing glasses, a beard, and a dark shirt. Lev Raphael has spoken about his work on three continents and has been publishing fiction and prose about the Second Generation for over thirty years —longer than any other American author. His nineteen books include The German Money, Writing a Jewish Life, and Dancing on Tisha B’Av. He lives in Okemos, Michigan.

 

Wisconsin Public Television talk:

Praise:
“Part genealogical study, part book tour travelogue and part coming-out account, the author’s stark portrayal of religious, sexual and literary evolution is a compassionate record of one man’s several liberations.”
—Richard Labonte, Bookmarks, “Top Ten Nonfiction Titles of 2009”

“Lev Raphael writes with the precision of a neurosurgeon, the warmth of an ancient storyteller, and the soul of a people that has known the extremes of joy and sorrow, hope and despair, love and hate more than almost any other.”
  —The Jewish Bulletin, San Francisco

“Stunning and powerful. . . . Lev Raphael’s memoir is a superb work combining intellectual rigor with emotional honesty in exploring his three-fold identity as a son of Holocaust survivors, a Jew, and a gay man.”
—Alan L. Berger, Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair of Holocaust Studies, Florida Atlantic University

“Part travelogue and part detective story, My Germany is a wholly enthralling, beautifully written story of healing and forgiveness.”
—Lynne Olson, author of Troublesome Young Men

“Raphael’s struggle to emotionally and culturally reconcile with a Germany he could never forgive makes for somber reading. But his struggle to balance his identity as a Jew and a gay man is one even those outside this world can appreciate.”
EDGE, November 1, 2011

Additional Resources:
• Visit Lev Raphael’s website at
www.levraphael.com for a schedule of his upcoming appearances.

• You can now see Raphael on YouTube doing a short reading from My Germany.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFhrajH-6AE

• Raphael's interview with WKAR News on NPR © Morning edition is available here: WKAR interview.

My Germany has a rave review on the Bookslut blog: www.bookslut.com/features/2009_05_014423.php

Many other reviews, features, and interviews can be found at: www.levraphael.com/sgrevu_mg.html.

Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)

There is a press kit for this book, see My Germany press kit.

The cover of Raphael's book is a photo collage of a town in Germany, a young man's face and a bridge.

First Paperback Edition
October 2011

LC: 2008039540 E
236 pp.   6 x 9   15 b/w illus.


Paper $19.95 t
ISBN 978-0-299-23154-5
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The paperback edition of this title contains a new coda.


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