I thought the book was wonderful. The characters were richly developed and the story made me not want to ever take a break - I ended up getting through the book in one day. I liked that the topic was not one of the common historical fiction areas of WWII.

Freedom at last

An amazing story of an incredible lady with a dream of freedom in America. Rachel survived for her daughter Helmi who survived for her dreams. Not only is this a story of two women surviving first in Russia then in Asia both under occupation by enemy forces, but a story of family, because without family neither may have survived.

A historical account of two courageous women in a world at war. From Ukraine to China to Shanghai, to Japan, to Reno, Nevada in the U.S. This mother and daughter weathered hardships and anti Semitism as non stated Jewish immigrants.

Helmi always looked to the present and forward in her life leaving the past behind, not wishing to speak of it and enjoying her American life, her family, her two sons David and Terry. Rachel unfortunately lived in a state of perpetual anxiety never quite believing that her good fortune would last and plagued by nightmares and memories of her past life. She lived too much in the past and could never actually leave it behind.

I thought it was wonderful how Helmi managed to quickly assimilate into American life and became a respected member of her community. She handled her harrowing childhood and all the hardships with strength as well as the death of her husband many years later. She faltered, but she never broke and she went on to live her life.

When reading this I felt like I had just visited Shanghai during the war and Reno after the war. The descriptions were vividly told with pictures in a very descriptive way. While I have never lived through anything similar it helped me understand someone that did.

This was a very interesting book and I am glad it was written and I was able to read it. I enjoyed Helmi's story. I would recommend this book.

Thanks to David Horgan, University of Nevada Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy of the book for my honest review.

This is a tremendous book. If you have any interest in jewish history, especially a segment of it we (or at least I) haven't heard before, give this a read. Utterly fascinating.

Found this book fascinating. It was hard getting into and I had to re-read the first couple chapters before I picked up the storyline and got into it. Once I was able to get the gist of it it was an easy read. I would recommend.

Helmi's Shadow by David Horgan (Helmi's son) is an intriguing and unusual biography about a period and places little known to Americans. Helmi is a Russian Jew who flees east from the Nazis with her mother, Rachel, first to Shanghai and then to Kobe, Japan in the hopes that they can escape the pogroms of the Nazis. Hard workers, they run a boardinghouse that barely manages to keep them in basic necessities. At the same time, Helmi goes to school and distinguishes herself as an excellent student.

In Kobe, Helmi meets a GI from Reno, Nevada, and with his help, she later moves to America to marry him and start a family. Eventually, Rachel also goes to the US, and a seminal part of the book is Rachel's psychotic episodes brought on by the PTSD of anti-semitism and the terror of abuse. Rachel is tied to Judaism; Helmi, on the other hand, is not religious, and is a disinterested secular Jew. The family she marries into is strongly and dominantly Catholic, and the subsequent contrasts and conflicts that arise are well drawn.

Helmi's Shadow is the best kind of biography; Horgan's connection to his subject matter is quiet but unwavering, and he tells the story of his mother and grandmother with clarity and emotional balance. The book is hard to put down, and it is historically accurate and riveting in the way that only a completely comprehensive and unusual family story can be. Helmi's Shadow is highly recommended and will appeal to all kinds of readers.

This was a fascinating novel based on the author's family's own history. I was thoroughly engaged the entire time I was reading it. Because most narratives based on the holocaust are centered in Europe, this one was particularly interesting because of the Russian/Asian geographical influence. I know many of my students will be interested in reading this novel when it is published because of the relationship it might have had to their grandparents' experiences.

I usually enjoy reading books with a Jewish theme. However, I found this book to be too wordy and was also unhappy with the disregard to anything Jewish.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this title.
Well written with well developed characters. Beautifully researched, the book tells a history of Russian Jews in China and Japan about which I knew nothing. Wonder why that is but I learned a lot. I grew up in Reno in about the same era. It was fun to see old friends and placed show up on these pages.

I couldn't put it down and read all through the night. If you have an interest in Jewish history, particularly as it played out during WW2 in China and Japan, then you'll eagerly get caught up in Horgan's family story. It's readable, well-researched, and quite unique. I hope it will gain wide readership.