{"product_id":"ester-and-ruzya-how-my-grandmothers-survived-hitlers-war-and-stalins-peace-9780385336055","title":"Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this \"extraordinary family memoir,\"* the National Book Award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Future Is History \u003c\/i\u003ereveals the story of her two grandmothers, who defied Fascism and Communism during a time when tyranny reigned.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003e*\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the 1930s, as waves of war and persecution were crashing over Europe, two young Jewish women began separate journeys of survival. Ester Goldberg was a rebel from Bialystok, Poland, where virtually the entire Jewish community would be sent to Hitler's concentration camps. Ruzya Solodovnik was a Russian-born intellectual who would become a high-level censor under Stalin's regime. At war's end, both women found themselves in Moscow. Over the years each woman had to find her way in a country that aimed to make every citizen a cog in the wheel of murder and repression. One became a hero in her children's and grandchildren's eyes; the other became a collaborator. With grace, candor, and meticulous research, Masha Gessen, one of the most trenchant observers of Russia and its history today, peels back the layers of time to reveal her grandmothers' lives--and to show that neither story is quite what it seems. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for Masha Gessen\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"One of the most important activists and journalists Russia has known in a generation.\"\u003cb\u003e--David Remnick, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Masha Gessen is humbly erudite, deftly unconventional, and courageously honest.\"\u003cb\u003e--Timothy Snyder, author of \u003ci\u003eOn Tyranny\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMasha Gessen \u003c\/b\u003eis a staff writer at \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e and the author of several books, among them \u003ci\u003eThe Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eThe recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Carnegie Fellowship, Gessen teaches at Amherst College and lives in New York City.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50543628648722,"sku":"9780385336055","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7e0d5113-e439-48b3-9421-93c84f050005.jpg?v=1731512435","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/ester-and-ruzya-how-my-grandmothers-survived-hitlers-war-and-stalins-peace-9780385336055","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}