I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

This is a beautiful story about the love between a grandmother and her granddaughter. Hana shared her life experiences - growing up, surviving the Holocaust, and coming to America - with her granddaughter Rachael, a budding photo-journalist. Upon Hana's death, Rachael discovers her grandmother's true legacy: all of her papers, letters, photographs, and documents. Rachael decides to honor Hana's life by visiting locations where Hana lived and connecting with the people she met along the way and their descendants.

Hana survived the war through the kindness of strangers. The families of these people welcome Rachael and, through them, she learns more about her grandmother's ordeal. This is a powerful and heartwarming story of humans at their best.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book. I liked the book and thought it was well written. I think it is wonderful that she found her grandmothers life and wanted to share it.

This is a memoir about Cerrotti's grandmother, Hana Dubova, a Holocaust survivor. What I really love about We Share the Same Sky is the degree to which Cerrotti had access to her grandmother's journals and even to some of the people/relatives of the people who helped Hana or journeyed with her. This is also a memoir about the ten years Cerotti spent organizing family records, having them translated and following Hana's footsteps from Czechoslovakia to Denmark to Sweden and ultimately the United States. It is a love story between Cerrotti and her future husband Sergio, a Polish man she knew from England and caught up with in her travels. We Share the Same Sky is a unique take for me on a Holocaust survival story, because the Nazis allowed Hana's group of fourteen to sixteen year old Czech Zionists to leave their occupied country and travel to Denmark where they were sponsored by various families, pending a planned move to Palestine. Hana was happily settled on a Danish farm and never did go to Israel. She eventually had to leave in an overloaded boat bound for Sweden when Denmark was no longer safe for Jews under its own Nazi occupation. This is ultimately a book about relationships--- Hana's and her lost family's relationship; Hana's and Rachel's relationship; each of their relationships with the Danish farm family that fostered Hana; the Swedish fisherman that rescued the boatload of exiles from Denmark; the famous rabbi who traveled on that boat and his descendants; Hana's not so great first marriage; and Rachel's and Sergio's relationship that led to marriage and sorrow. It is a rich and loving accounting, meticulously researched and beautifully written.

3.5 stars rounded up
Hana Dubova proudly wore a pin that declared her an “outrageous older woman.” “Rachael tells her grandmother’s story through her own words – diaries, letters, conversation, testimony – but also through the lives of those who knew her and those who saved her.” It was interesting to read a book about a Jewish woman who was saved because her parents sent her to work in Denmark at age 14. Later, she was smuggled aboard a Swedish fishing boat.

Cerrotti’s writing is strongest when she writes in an essay style. Speaking of her grandmother Hana, she writes, “She was a strong-willed teen, a refugee, and an orphan. She was a survivor and a victim, a wanderer and someone who dreamed of home…an urban dweller and a farmer… She was a Czech child, a stateless teen, and an American wife. She was a traveler, an explorer, a teacher, and a student. She spoke six languages.”

As with many books about WWII, the old story is more than strong enough to stand on its own. Cerrotti records her personal thoughts and feelings, as she literally traces her grandmother’s journeys across Europe and America. At the end of Hana’s story, Rachael went into much more detail with her own story. While tragic, I did not find it as compelling. In my opinion, it didn’t seem to fit the narrative of a “memoir of memory and migration.”

An advantage of the book is that there are a few photographs of Hana and those who helped her at the end.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

College student Rachael Cerrotti asked her grandmother Hana to record her story. That's how Rachael began a 10+ year investigation into the life of her Mutti, a Holocaust survivor. Along the way, Rachael connected with the places and the people who helped Hana survive, and Rachael found her story, too.
This book tells a tale of survival, love, grief, and friendship. It also introduces several intertwined families across continents who touched each other and gave each other life.
I picked up the book thinking it was about Hana. Instead, about half of it tells Rachael's story and the development of her career, passion for Hana's story and love life. As I don't know the author, I found many parts boring and irrelevant.
Readers who are familiar with the author will appreciate the book. It also offers an interesting look into one woman's escape from death and how compassion, resilience and determination can propel us to freedom.

It’s been 76 years since World War II ended, and for the Jewish people who survived those atrocities, time is growing short to make sure their stories are told. The accounts from concentration camps are particularly hard to receive, and particularly important to communicate. But not every Jewish person in Europe during the early 1940s went to a concentration camp, and their stories also need to be told.

Author Rachael Cerrotti grew up knowing that her grandmother, Hana, was in Europe during the war, and the details of her journeys across the continent before finally landing in the U.S. after the war.

Click on the link below to read the rest of the review.

Rachael, a granddaughter who has accepted the baton passed from her grandmother Hana, has written both her grandmother's story and her own as she's lived it up to the writing of this book. She travels widely, wanting to fit her feet in the footsteps of Hana, and to try and understand what it was to be in the very places, spaces, that her grandmother had been. She pours through mountains of materials left by Hana. Rachael successfully endeavors to evoke a sense of Hana's journeys, hopes and griefs.

Hana's path was winding and full of furtive starts and stops in order to avoid the Nazi shadow that tried to prevent all from independent movement. Heroes appear in the telling of her story, from individuals to nations, who wholeheartedly make place and space for the desperate people escaping from invaded territories by any means possible.

Rachael's path is woven from later cloth around the earlier pattern of her grandmother's path, and is interesting and holds a reader's attention as her relationships complete the bridge-making her grandmother started.

A great read, illustrating some of what has come of those terrific sacrifices made by those who escaped and survived Hitler and his dreadful nightmare: Generations whose hearts truly are turned to their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters.

A sincere thanks to Rachael Cerrotti, Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. #WeSharetheSameSky #NetGalley

I didn't know much about this book going into it but I was surprised to learn it was about a holocaust survivor, one of my favorite stories to read about! I always tell people it sounds really weird to say it's my favorite subject because the stories are heartbreaking, but I feel a need to hear as many stories as I can. I feel strongly that we owe it to the survivors to hear what they experienced, to honor their loved ones who didn't make it out, and to educate our children on the events that happened at the camps.
Rachael shares the story of her grandmother who lived in Czech. Hannah wrote a beautiful diary with all the details of her life growing up and her story of loosing her family at the camps. How special to have these letters to treasure! To honor her grandmother Rachael travels to the home Hannah grew up, met friends and family Hannah grew up with, and even went to the camp to experience what it looked like. In the middle of sharing Hannahs story Rachael suffers a terrible loss of her own, one that will surely rock the reader, I know it did me.
In an entry Hannah writes;
I often wonder does it mean anything to this generation, if it penetrates, or leaves any impact, does it concern them at all because it happened so long ago, they have there own problems to deal with"
I for one care, and I will do my part in honoring your story and sharing it with my kids so that you're not forgot.
Thank you Racheal for sharing your story and honoring your grandmother in such a beautiful book.

I have been devouring many books lately that are based during the second World War, but We Share the Same Sky is set apart in my mind, touching me deeply. The heart and detail that Rachael put in this this story is apparent from the first words written. She has an incredible way of pulling you into the dual narrative, an incredible journey of Rachael walking the walk that her grandmother, Hana, a Holocaust survivor, walked.

I have never read such a harrowing tale! To actually meet the people that her late grandmother met, to see the same landscape, and truly immerse herself in her grandmother's life is just astounding! It made me crave to do the same with my family, and actually has inspired me to document my own parents and grandparents journeys as much as possible.

You can feel the heart and passion that went into this project, and it is so well written that you feel as if you too are on the journey. Though there is tragedy in varying forms throughout this novel, there is also a silver lining, a harrowing story of a Holocaust survivor who lost everything, yet found her way to prosperity in family and love. Beauty from the ashes...

Hana was such an incredible woman and her story was one that needed to be told. I am so thankful that Rachael took on this passion project and highly recommend We Share the Same Sky to anyone who wants to see the past and the present so masterfully intertwined, and to hear one unbelievable journey.

This is a well written story about the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who decides to write her grandmother’s story. But she also goes one better and retraces her footsteps by going to Europe and visiting all of the same places her grandmother went during and after the war. It's such a touching thing to do in her grandmother’s memory, and really makes the whole thing come together. I couldn’t get enough of this book, it shared so much of Hana’s original journey. The author even looked up the families of the people who had helped Hana during the war, to keep her safe and well. I think it’s a wonderful book, very readable. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Rachael Cerrotti, and the publisher.

I resisted reading We Share the Same Sky for as long as I could since reading such books about Holocaust survivors and their descendants who trace their family history are two of my most favorite genres. Cerrotti was fortunate that her grandmother left her a treasure trove of photographs, letters, and journals to document her life. She was sent to Denmark so it was an interesting angle of a survivor, one that it not often told. Rachael retraced her grandmother’s journey herself, several,times, forming deep deep connections and bonds with her the families that had aided her. It’s a poignant tribute to a much loved woman by a granddaughter who finds a bit of herself and suffers loss in the process.

This book was so interesting. I really loved the writing and the story portrayal. I wanted to cry pretty much the entire time. Excellent.

This book was well-written and absorbing. Rachael goes on a journey to retrace the steps of her European Grandmother, Hana, during the Holocaust. Along the way, Rachael meets the descendants of people who knew and helped her Grandmother, and they become a community of friends. What Rachael didn't count on was meeting a young man from Poland who isn't Jewish but who loves Israel and becomes her best friend. Later, the two marry, only to find their happiness interrupted. Rachel did not set out to write her own story, but her and her Grandmother's stories become interlaced with grief and strength. By the book's end, Rachael is so much wiser, connected to others, and grateful than she was when she started this project.

Rachael Cerrotti wanted to travel in her grandmother's footprints, the only survivor of the holocaust in her family. Rachael found more than she dreamed of. Meeting members of the various families who helped her grandmother in different countries across Europe brought special meaning to "giving". Though we have heard there were those who helped Jews escape Hitler's killing spree, to hear the words from these families allowed Rachael and her readers to feel the giving hearts and nature of those who helped her grandmother. Rachael lived with some of these families and became a part of her grandmother's history. For anyone curious about this tragic time in history, this book gives that and so much more.

This was a fascinating biography of Hana Dubova, a Jewish woman who escaped Czechoslovakia as a young woman for Denmark as the Nazis were invading. I hadn't heard about the role of Denmark and Sweden with helping Jewish people during the Holocaust and it was so informative to learn more. Written by her granddaughter Rachel, it was powerful to hear Rachel following her grandmother's footsteps from Czechoslovakia (today Czech Republic) through Denmark and Sweden, then also across the U.S. Hana was a truly incredible woman and I was drawn to her experiences.

We Share the Same Sky by Rachael Cerrotti is a stunning account written by the author describing the fascinating, haunting, and beautiful life of her grandmother, Hana, whom was amongst many things, a Holocaust survivor.

Through a collection of interviews, letters, archives, photos, extensive research, and discussions, the author has pieces together the life of her grandmother...and in this long process, she was also able to start the journey into finding herself.

Through her book, I was easily able to see Hana as an incredible, brave, fierce, intelligent, determined, beautiful, and lasting soul that survived not only atrocity after atrocity, but also lived a life worth loving and experiencing afterwards. I was in awe of Hana, and her story is paramount to remembering all of our people that were loved, lost, triumphed, and were affected during this horrific time.

I am so blessed that Rachael has been gracious enough to share her family’s story with me. I will forever remember and cherish this journey.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Blackstone Publishing for this arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication.

This book was INCREDIBLE! Everyone should read this absolutely riveting book that reads like a novel, but is in fact, completely true. This story is full of courage, and I am in awe of Rachael Carrotti's grandmother.