We Were Strangers Once, Betsy Carter
We Were Strangers Once, Betsy Carter
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

We Were Strangers Once

Author: Betsy Carter

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Unabridged: 10 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/12/2017


Synopsis

For fans of The Nightingale and Brooklyn comes an exquisite and unforgettable novel about friendship, love, and redemption in a circle of immigrants who flee Europe for 1930s-era New York City.

"Carter's warm and beautiful prose brings us love, tragedy, mystery and hope in a moving celebration of America and the people who have come to it." -- Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky Us and Away

On the eve of World War II Egon Schneider--a gallant and successful Jewish doctor, son of two world-famous naturalists--escapes Germany to an uncertain future across the sea. Settling into the unfamiliar rhythms of upper Manhattan, he finds solace among a tight-knit group of fellow immigrants, tenacious men and women drawn together as much by their differences as by their memories of the world they left behind.

They each suffer degradations and triumphs large and small: Egon's terminally acerbic lifelong friend, bestselling author Meyer Leavitt, now wears a sandwich board on a New York street corner; Catrina Harty, the headstrong daughter of a dirt-poor Irish trolley driver, survives heartbreak and loss to forge an unlikely alliance; and Egon himself is forced to abandon his thriving medical practice to become the "Cheese Man" at a Washington Heights grocery. But their spirits remain unbroken, and when their little community is faced with an existential threat, these strangers rise up together in hopes of creating a permanent home. With her uncanny ability to create indelible characters in unforgettable circumstances, bestselling author Betsy Carter has crafted a gorgeous novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt adrift and longed for home.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Angela M on September 11, 2017

I was going to hold off on reading this, having read several books in the last year or so on the refugee experience. This one though, didn't take place in the current day, but before WWII and I thought about immigrants from our history even earlier than this time when my grandparents came to this co......more

Goodreads review by Annette on September 18, 2019

I’ve never read any books by this author and I don’t know if this is her regular style of writing. But it sounds as the author is trying to tell the whole story in one breath. You can’t even get into the period time, especially of the war, with such rush-through style of writing. It is not the style......more

Goodreads review by Genna on July 11, 2017

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. "America is a land of refugees and immigrants. Everyone was once a stranger here." We Were Strangers Once is a timely novel, despite being set primarily during WWII. Carter has crafted a particularly poignant cast of......more

Goodreads review by Charlene on August 28, 2019

First part of book, set in Germany, moved rather slowly but once the scene was set & a small group of Jewish friends/acquaintances from Frankfort immigrated to NYC in 1938, the story picked up and I zoomed through this in a day. Also as a secondary story we have two first generation Irish character......more

Goodreads review by Gaele on February 20, 2018

AudioBook Review Stars: Overall 5 Narration 5 Story 5 The real questions that are dealt with here are those faced by many immigrants: how to hold on to yourself and your culture while reinventing yourself in this new life, as someone ‘different’, and deal with the prejudices that are different from, y......more


Quotes

"A moving story of loss, longing, and perseverance."—A Best New September Release, Real Simple

"In this sharply observed historical novel, a web of friendships connect German Jews in pre-Hitler Germany after they emigrate to America. In their complex relationships and struggles both emotional and cultural, we are given insight into life at its most resilient and joyous. An important book to remind us of the humanity in the current wave of immigrants, and how much they have to offer us."—Alice LaPlante, New York Times bestselling author of Turn of Mind

"Betsy Carter's warm and beautiful prose brings us love, tragedy, mystery and hope in a moving celebration of America and the people who have come to it."—Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky Us and Away

"Moving and intensely personal, this subtle novel of the immigrant experience in 1940s Manhattan boasts impressive and varied character development... There are multiple read-alikes here: Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale (2015) for Carter's lovely writing style and the pathos in her story; Dinaw Mengestu's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007) for Carter's evocation of the poverty and yearning to belong that are so often the immigrant's lot; and Natasha Solomons' Mr. Rosenblum Dreams (2010) for Carter's endearing characters with their unbridled determination and positive attitude. A memorable, important, and insightful novel."
Booklist, starred review

"This is a gorgeous, heartbreaking book... beautiful in its characters' resilience and reminders of the contributions immigrants have made to this country... Carter has created a vivid world... Their stories are unique and distinctive, and yet their struggles feel familiar. Could this be required reading for anyone who seeks to keep refugees out of this country?"—Historical Novels Review

"The sights, the sounds, the fears, the disappointments, the hopes, the triumphs and the passion of a group of people are so real, readers will believe they are their friends and neighbors."—RT Reviews

"I was carried through We Were Strangers Once by a story as swiftly paced affecting as the events that deposit its characters on wartime American shores. I believed in this desperate flotsam of immigrant souls, drawn with keen historical accuracy, humor, and a lackmaker's eye for detail. I didn't want to leave these benighted, unlikely lovers. Imagine: A literate, deft and moving binge read."
Gerri Hirshey, author of Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown

"Historically accurate, warm, moving and easy to recommend."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}New York Journal of Books

"A gorgeous novel about a tight-knit group of immigrants in New York in the 1930s, sharing friendship, triumphs and disappointments as they try to forge new lives in a strange new land."—New York Post

"WE WERE STRANGERS ONCE, though a work of historical fiction, demonstrates how difficult and stressful it was/is to arrive in a foreign land to begin a new life. We are reminded that, yes, we all were strangers here once and that the refugee experience continues to repeat itself today in many parts of the globe. What we see on the evening news is just a tiny glimpse of what strangers to any foreign land must endure and overcome."—Book Reporter