Before Their Time, Robert Kotlowitz
Before Their Time, Robert Kotlowitz
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

Before Their Time
A Memoir

Author: Robert Kotlowitz

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Unabridged: 6 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/28/2022

Synopsis

In this memoir of his experiences as a teenage infantryman in the US Third Army during World War II, Kotlowitz brings to life the harrowing story of the massacre of his platoon in northeastern France, in which he—by playing dead—was the only one to survive.

About Robert Kotlowitz

Robert Kotlowitz (1924–2012) a native of Baltimore and a graduate of Johns Hopkins, worked as Managing Editor of Harper’s magazine and for more than two decades as Director of Programming and Broadcasting for WNET in New York.

About Grover Gardner

Grover Gardner has recorded more than 650 audiobooks since beginning his career in 1981.  He's been named one of the "Best Voices of the Century" as well as a "Golden Voice" by AudioFile magazine.  Gardner has garnered over 20 AudioFile Earphones Awards and is the recipient of an Audio Publishers Association Audie Award, as well as a three-time finalist.  In 2005, Publishers Weekly deemed him "Audiobook Narrator of the Year." Gardner has also narrated hundreds of audiobooks under the names Tom Parker and Alexander Adams.  Among his many titles are Marcus Sakey's At the City's Edge, as well as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and John Irving's The Cider House Rules.  Gardner studied Theater and Art History at Rollins College and received a Master's degree in Acting from George Washington University.  He lives in Oregon with his significant other and daughter.

Reviews

Goodreads review by M. D.

This is not your typical “Greatest Generation” veteran’s memoir. Here is the opening paragraph: “In 1943, I was a pre-med day student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Half the student body at Hopkins during World War II was pre-med; it was a respectable way of evading the draft. Bu......more

Goodreads review by Charlie

This is an honest to goodness memoir about a soldier that talks honestly about his experience before and after he signs up (sorta reluctantly) in 1943. He speaks openly about the recruits and his buddies that he served with during WW11. Refreshing. Very refreshing.......more

Goodreads review by Stefanie

This was one of the first books that I ever checked out about World War II. I stayed with my grandparents for the summer, and they got me a library card for the library where they lived. I loved this book, and it helped start my interest in World War II. This book is a memoir written by Robert Kotlo......more

Goodreads review by Daniel

This is a rare first person's account of what It was like to be in the Army during WWII from boot camp to battle and its aftermath. I thought it interesting that it was told entirely from a personal viewpoint without any comments about the war itself. Most of the time they had very little informatio......more

Quotes

“This memoir does a superb job of sympathizing with all those puzzled boys, dead well before their time.” Washington Post Book World

“Combat soldiers’ memories are like flames or waves on a beach; they seem the same, but their patterns are always changing. Robert Kotlowitz…has produced…the model for such memories…[A] superb narrative.” New York Times Book Review

“His straightforward prose captures both the mundane and the horrific features of a soldier’s life, as well as his own teenager’s naivete…An unsentimental, honest testament to the individual experience of war—the kind that history overlooks.” Kirkus Reviews

“Kotlowitz writes with skill and mordant humor of the infantryman’s life, of the incredible instinct to survive, of ‘the sounds…never before heard’… His fine memoir belongs on readers’ shelves alongside such books as Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers and Paul Fussell’s Doing Battle, primary documents of a terrible time.” Amazon.com

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