Wanderers: A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II
Wanderers: A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II
Wanderers: A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II
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Description
Description
An immigration journalist and her wife trace their family's intertwined past to unearth a history of how hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews survived Hitler's Holocaust at the brutal hands of Stalin--a story that sheds light on the enduring power of hope and love. Daniela Gerson and her wife, Talia Inlender, met at a picnic in Los Angeles, not knowing that 75 years earlier, their grandparents had left homes only blocks away from each other in a small Polish town, and fled east to Ukraine. The Gersons and the Inlenders would go on parallel odysseys of 5,000 miles to survive the Holocaust--one that would, after a deceitful loyalty test from Stalin, put them on cattle cars to a Soviet Gulag, years in limbo in Central Asia, and would end, after a decade on the run, with new lives built on secrets and lies. For years, Daniela and Talia simply accepted this painful shared history as a sign that they were b'shert, meant to be. Their families' refugee past fueled their work: Daniela as an immigration journalist; Talia an immigration attorney. But as Daniela uncovered more, she realized that their grandparents shared this escape path in the Soviet Union with most Polish Jews who survived; a group--sometimes collectively called "the Wanderers"--that is almost entirely absent from popular understanding of World War II. And unlike most Holocaust sagas that focus on the exceptionality of the Nazi genocide, theirs was also a universal story of refugees making impossible decisions when forced to seek safety, protect their children, and find new homes. This is a story that, to the dismay of the world, remains relevant each time a political upheaval wreaks havoc on individual lives. Part genealogical detective story, part gripping history, part contemporary reporting on war-torn territories, The Wanderers chronicles Daniela's journey to unearth this past with her wife, and reveal its echoes in still-contested lands from Ukraine to Israel. The Wanderers is a groundbreaking narrative history, and a meditation on how a home left behind and a desperate journey to survive reverberates across borders and through generations.
About the Author
About the Author
Daniela Gerson is an award-winning immigration reporter whose work has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, WNYC, Der Spiegel, and Financial Times. An associate professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge and editor-at-large at Zócalo Public Square, she previously co-founded Migratory Notes, worked as a community engagement editor at the LA Times and as a staff immigration reporter for the New York Sun. Daniela lives in Los Angeles with her two children and wife, an attorney specializing in immigrants' rights.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"The Wanderers is a family memoir unlike any other, crafted by a writer who is equal parts detective, historian, and dutiful daughter. Epic in scope, it crosses three continents, from twenty-first century Los Angeles, to war-torn Polish shtetls, Ukrainian crossroads, and the windswept villages of Central Asia. This book is an unforgettable testament to the resolve and strength of a family, and a people."
--Héctor Tobar, author of Our Migrant Souls "Traveling to Poland and Ukraine, Tel Aviv and Tashkent, Daniela pursues the details of their intertwined family stories. She sifts through name changes, blurred documents, and lies told in order to survive. As she pursues these stories of the war of the past, she finds herself entering two wars of the present--in Ukraine, and in Gaza. Self-reflective, committed to truth-telling, and painfully aware that victimhood does not imply innocence, the author takes the reader on an enthralling journey through multiple hells and layer upon layer of tragedy for more than one people."
--Marci Shore, author of The Ukrainian Night and The Taste of Ashes "In The Wanderers, Daniela Gerson searches for the truth about how her family survived the Holocaust by fleeing east into the belly of the murderous Soviet Union. After hearing stories and reading old letters from her grandparents, Gerson's curiosity lured her to Poland, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to delve into archives, walk in the footsteps of her ancestors, and drift through the shadows of those who did not survive. The Wanderers is a fascinating tale told by a sleuth with the instincts of a bloodhound, uncovering long-lost mysteries that offer warnings for the future."--Alex Storozynski, author of Spies In My Blood: Secrets of a Polish Family's Fight Against Nazis and Communists "When Daniela Gerson fell in love, she also fell into an epic detective story. She and her wife share roots from the same Polish village. In The Wanderers you'll accompany her across continents as she pieces together the intertwined histories of two families that survived both the Holocaust and Stalin's gulag. Her quest is a heavy-duty journalistic adventure. The story she tells with novelistic verve is full of deeply-drawn characters and their richly narrated tragedies and triumph. Along the way, you can't help but be drawn in by the almost mystical romance that develops between two women who are friends first, then lovers, then spouses and eventually parents, passing forward a shared inheritance of survival."--Roberto Suro, author of Strangers Among US: Latino Lives in a Changing America and Writing Immigration: Scholars and Journalists in Dialogue "Though etched in local detail, this is really a global tale for our own time. . .Today, when many Americans face questions to their citizenship, this book lets us know that true belonging lies less in the ink of a passport than in the blood of family. A uniquely vivid story of Holocaust wandering, told as a tale of modern self-discovery."--Kirkus Reviews "Gerson's powerful, expert inquiry into her family's Holocaust experience places the age-old question firmly before us: should we put atrocities of the past behind us, or must we recall and record them? Thankfully she chooses the latter, skillfully illuminating our responsibility to carry forth the stories - at times remarkably intertwined - of those who came before us."
--Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones "Journalist Gerson's deeply felt debut braids her and her wife's love story with an investigation into a lesser-known chapter of Jewish displacement during WWII. . . In crisp, unadorned prose, Gerson restores a neglected history; notes its contemporary resonances, as people are uprooted by violence across the globe; and tenderly chronicles the relationship that brought this history to light. It's a profoundly moving account."--Publishers Weekly "[Gerson's] impassioned tale spans decades, continents, languages, and coping mechanisms, and it provides a significant voice to a lesser known experience of Polish Jews. Gerson doesn't shy away from the hard realities their families faced and the legacy and consequences that remain for current and future generations worldwide."--Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
--Héctor Tobar, author of Our Migrant Souls "Traveling to Poland and Ukraine, Tel Aviv and Tashkent, Daniela pursues the details of their intertwined family stories. She sifts through name changes, blurred documents, and lies told in order to survive. As she pursues these stories of the war of the past, she finds herself entering two wars of the present--in Ukraine, and in Gaza. Self-reflective, committed to truth-telling, and painfully aware that victimhood does not imply innocence, the author takes the reader on an enthralling journey through multiple hells and layer upon layer of tragedy for more than one people."
--Marci Shore, author of The Ukrainian Night and The Taste of Ashes "In The Wanderers, Daniela Gerson searches for the truth about how her family survived the Holocaust by fleeing east into the belly of the murderous Soviet Union. After hearing stories and reading old letters from her grandparents, Gerson's curiosity lured her to Poland, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to delve into archives, walk in the footsteps of her ancestors, and drift through the shadows of those who did not survive. The Wanderers is a fascinating tale told by a sleuth with the instincts of a bloodhound, uncovering long-lost mysteries that offer warnings for the future."--Alex Storozynski, author of Spies In My Blood: Secrets of a Polish Family's Fight Against Nazis and Communists "When Daniela Gerson fell in love, she also fell into an epic detective story. She and her wife share roots from the same Polish village. In The Wanderers you'll accompany her across continents as she pieces together the intertwined histories of two families that survived both the Holocaust and Stalin's gulag. Her quest is a heavy-duty journalistic adventure. The story she tells with novelistic verve is full of deeply-drawn characters and their richly narrated tragedies and triumph. Along the way, you can't help but be drawn in by the almost mystical romance that develops between two women who are friends first, then lovers, then spouses and eventually parents, passing forward a shared inheritance of survival."--Roberto Suro, author of Strangers Among US: Latino Lives in a Changing America and Writing Immigration: Scholars and Journalists in Dialogue "Though etched in local detail, this is really a global tale for our own time. . .Today, when many Americans face questions to their citizenship, this book lets us know that true belonging lies less in the ink of a passport than in the blood of family. A uniquely vivid story of Holocaust wandering, told as a tale of modern self-discovery."--Kirkus Reviews "Gerson's powerful, expert inquiry into her family's Holocaust experience places the age-old question firmly before us: should we put atrocities of the past behind us, or must we recall and record them? Thankfully she chooses the latter, skillfully illuminating our responsibility to carry forth the stories - at times remarkably intertwined - of those who came before us."
--Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones "Journalist Gerson's deeply felt debut braids her and her wife's love story with an investigation into a lesser-known chapter of Jewish displacement during WWII. . . In crisp, unadorned prose, Gerson restores a neglected history; notes its contemporary resonances, as people are uprooted by violence across the globe; and tenderly chronicles the relationship that brought this history to light. It's a profoundly moving account."--Publishers Weekly "[Gerson's] impassioned tale spans decades, continents, languages, and coping mechanisms, and it provides a significant voice to a lesser known experience of Polish Jews. Gerson doesn't shy away from the hard realities their families faced and the legacy and consequences that remain for current and future generations worldwide."--Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
"Daniela Gerson's captivating debut sheds light on a fascinating and forgotten Holocaust story. Gerson masterfully weaves together the personal and the historical, the romantic and the political, the commonplace and the spiritual. Her voice is fresh, direct and wise. The Wanderers taught me not only about WW2 and current events, but about my own family's repressed story."
--Judy Batalion, New York Times bestselling author of The Light of Days and The Last Woman of Warsaw
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Grand Central Publishing
Pub date:
2026-03-31
Length:
336 pages
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