

Their Promised Land
My Grandparents in Love and War
Author: Ian Buruma
Narrator: Ian Buruma
Unabridged: 7 hr 24 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 01/19/2016
Author: Ian Buruma
Narrator: Ian Buruma
Unabridged: 7 hr 24 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 01/19/2016
Ian Buruma is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism at Bard College. His books include The China Lover, Murder in Amsterdam, Occidentalism, God’s Dust, Behind the Mask, The Wages of Guilt, Bad Elements, and Taming the Gods.
I am fascinated by the question of identity (it's central to the novel I am writing) and it is a central component of this book. And so, it was a must-read for me, especially since I am a similar age to Ian Buruma and we share a jewish heritage. The difference is that his grandparents were far more......more
What a concept...a happy marriage played out in letter form and commentary about a German/Jewish couple who met and married in England and their life as impacted by 2 world wars, long separations, and family matters. The added value is a peek at two people who out-Englished the English in terms of c......more
“Carefully and admirably written…Buruma writes of British-born Jews of the upper-middle class with a great, sympathetic perspicacity and sweetness—these are after all his grandparents who are his subject—and, most revealingly, he traces with precision the effect on their lives of being Jews of German origin in their beloved England during the two world wars.” Philip Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Buruma…has given us a wholly understanding, moving account of what it meant to be Jewish and English in one of the most troubled times of the last century…Buruma’s voyage into the past is a warning as well as a celebration of lost lives. Somehow we must ensure that our societies allow outsiders to flourish, however they choose to do it.” New York Times Book Review
“Buruma delivers a moving, intimate portrait of his grandparents…In a fluid, novelistic narrative, Buruma not only captures a remarkable marriage, but also a particular segment of English society—assimilated, upper-middle-class Jews…This illuminating story of cultural assimilation and identity will resonate with many readers.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A beautiful and complex love story that lasted through triumphs and disasters, years of separation, anti-Semitic microaggressions, and social and family pressures. Buruma’s work is well-paced, absorbing, and gives a human face to some of the darkest eras of contemporary European history.” Library Journal (starred review)
“A prizewinning historian recounts his German-Jewish family’s time in England during the most turbulent years of the twentieth century…Buruma impressively captures his grandparents’ remarkable lives in this insightful narrative. The author shapes his family’s labor of a lifetime into a scintillating work of art.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A fascinating and memorable personal family story…[A] stirring memoir.” Booklist
“Ian Buruma has woven an utterly engrossing story of cultivated, upper class German Jews who grew up in England and made its values their own. On the way, he probes anti-Semitism in all its guises and shifting social attitudes. At once family memoir and history, this is a book to linger over and savor.” Lisa Appignanesi, author of Trials of Passion