We Were the Lucky Ones By Georgia Hunter

This story was based on the author's Grandfather and the Kurc's family experiences during World War II beginning in Poland in 1939. This was both a beautiful and heartbreaking story. It is told through different member's of the family alternating throughout the book. The prose is lovely and lush and crystalline. The family gets scattered in all across different countries in Europe. This debut novel stayed with me and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

Thank you to Net Galley, Georgia Hunter and Viking Publishing.
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Loved this beautifully written WW2 book! Could be one of my favorites....I will be recommending this one over and over!

We Were the Lucky Ones is the story of a Polish family as they struggle to survive during World War ll. Georgia Hunter builds the story around true events that happened to her maternal grandfather and his family members.

At the time leading up to the war, we meet the Kurc family and their young adult children, who are beginning to marry and make their way in the world. In 1938, one of the Kurc sons, Addy, is in France. He tries to get home before the war breaks out, but is unable to do so, resulting in being cut off from them for the next several years.

As the war progresses, other family members become separated and lost to each other, as each one struggles to do whatever they can to survive and to find the other members of the family.

I am amazed that some of them were able to live through the situations they faced. Especially touching was the storyline of Mila and her young daughter, Felicia. What they escaped from is truly a miracle.

The story does not come to an end with the war. Instead, Hunter follows the family as they attempt to find each other and reconnect. I found this part of the story especially touching, since many of them were too afraid to hope that their loved ones were alive.

When Addy is finally reconnected with the family, he is in a position to help them get out of Europe and bring the family back together.

A great story of a family’s courage! Many thanks to Net-Galley and Penguin Group/Viking for allowing me an advanced read copy in exchange for an honest review.

This debut novel recounts not only one but multiple harrowing tales of unlikely survival. It’s also an amazing piece of historical reconstruction, expertly translated into fiction. As Hunter reveals at the start, fewer than 300 of the 30,000-plus Jewish residents of Radom, Poland, remained alive after WWII. Her grandfather and his four siblings were among them. Learning about her family’s Holocaust past as a teenager, she set out to uncover their stories: interviewing older relatives, tracing their paths across Europe and elsewhere, poring through archives for relevant facts.

Knowing the ultimate outcome, one may wonder whether the novel offers any suspense. In short, yes. The circumstances her characters endure are excruciatingly traumatic; that they manage to survive is thanks to a combination of resourceful planning, split-second decisions made under tremendous pressure, and random luck. Also, there are numerous other people they care deeply about, and readers will anxiously hope that they survive as well. Many chapters end with a mini-cliffhanger, which seems over-the-top initially but does heighten tension.

The story has impressive breadth, spanning over six years and many countries around the globe as the Kurcs pursue separate quests for safety through a Nazi-darkened world. One can sense the terror faced by Mila, forced to hide her two-year-old daughter, Felicia, in a paper sack of fabric scraps when the Gestapo invades the factory where she works—and feel Felicia’s claustrophobic fear as well. Genek and his wife Herta endure near-frozen conditions in a Siberian gulag, where their baby son is born. The author’s grandfather, Addy, an affable, talented musician, leaves Paris early on, but his planned voyage to Brazil is held up, and he remains consumed by worry over his family. The novel is full of tangible details but has thriller-style pacing. Reading it is a consuming experience.

An amazing story. Based on the author's family history, We Were The Lucky Ones follows three generations of the Kurc family through the years of World War II. As the Polish and Jewish family is scattered across the globe, their struggle to survive and reunite is a testament to the love of family and friends. The chapters alternate point of view between the family members, and at the end of many chapters Ms. Hunter has included a short, dated paragraph telling what was actually happening in the war at that time. For me, this device added a sense of urgency to the story, propelling me along to the next chapter.

There are a lot of characters, and I did need to make myself a little chart to keep track of them. Perhaps in the final print version (I read on a Kindle) there will be a family tree or a list of characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This story is based on a Polish Jewish family, the Kurcs, who are separated at the beginning of WWII. The entire family is determined to not only survive, but to reunite with each other. In the spring of 1939, 3 generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live their normal lives as the shadow of war grows closer and closer. Soon the horrors happening throughout Europe will come to Poland and the members of the Kurc family will be separated and sent to various places around the world. Each fighting for their own survival and a path to eventual safety. One sibling is forced into exile, another sibling attempts to flee the continent, while others are forced to work in factories in the ghetto or hiding as gentiles in plain sight. The family is scattered across many countries from Siberia to Northern Africa.

This story is based on the lives of the author's family and as an other book that is about the Holocaust, it is of course extremely hard to read at times. The author talks about how she was unaware of her family's past until the age of 9 and concludes the book with an "Author's Note" that explains her research, what happened to those involved and how her family is now. Overall I enjoyed the book, as I especially like reading historical fiction and nonfiction relating to WWII and the Holocaust. It is a harrowing, but beautiful story of one families struggle to not only survive, but to try to reunite.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advanced reading copy of this book.

This was an excellent book narrating the story of one family during WWII. The hardships that they went through, how they endured, how they suffered, how they were estranged and how they found each other again.

Their's was not an easy life. The book definitely described this. It also told of love and how the family took risks to save each other and to help bring them back together. It was especially sad to read about the things that Mila had to put her young daughter of less than five years old through in order to save her life.

A family who were evicted from their stately home where they had lived for many years. They had put a lot of pride, time and money into this home. They were given a few hours to collect their belongings and leave. They then had to find a new home, one that was empty, in what was to become the "ghetto" and what was a two room apartment for four adults and one child. It was a trying time and a scary time for all of them. One which years would go by and they would not hear from each other. It was almost a decade before they would hear from their one son, Addy.

This was such a sad story. Unfortunately, I know that were many of these. I did find it interesting though that these people kept on having babies. That part I just didn't understand. That being said, this was an interesting read, one that I found mesmerizing and one that I could not put down. I felt for these people, the author made them so real. I was engrossed in their daily lives and had to know what became of them.

Thanks to Penguin Group Viking for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

A large Jewish family from Poland is torn apart by World War II. Scattered around Europe and beyond, not knowing if any of their other family members are alive. Each family member experiencing different hardships of war. Alternating chapters telling the story of each of the family's children.

I loved this story! I also very much appreciated when the author gave a timeline of WW2 events as the story progressed. But one thing I found grating was that the author wrote this story set in the past and wrote it in the present tense.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33016939-we-were-the-lucky-ones" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="We Were the Lucky Ones" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479623636m/33016939.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33016939-we-were-the-lucky-ones">We Were the Lucky Ones</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6014380.Georgia_Hunter">Georgia Hunter</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1742879465">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This is the story of the Kurc family, a Jewish family, the parents and their five adult children, beginning in 1939, in Radom, Poland.<br /><br />We follow them through the years just prior to, and during World War ll, one of them sent to Siberia, and others fleeing to different locations in Europe.<br /><br />This is a lovely story of survival, and family love.<br />Based on the life of the author's grandfather.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12851291-karen">View all my reviews</a>

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Books for allowing me to read and review this book.
This book follows the Kurc family. They have 5 children and a grand daughter. They are Jews who live in Radom, Poland at the start of World War 2. This is a heartbreaking book to read. All the Kurcs end up scattered to different places during the war. Between work camps, jail, exile, and the ghetto they have a will to survive. The Kurcs are hopeful that after this awful war is over they will all be reunited again. The book follows the entire war and all of the Kurc family. It is a story of faith, family, and love of family. I loved the author's notes at the end of the book. It is a book I will never forget.

This was a powerful book that actually had new perspectives to share on WWII. Author Georgia Hunter meticulously researched her maternal grandfather's history, and how his family of Polish Jews survived. The story alternates among the five grown children, so there are a lot of characters to keep track of, and it would often take me a little while to remember where we last left that sibling, but each one had an amazing tale of survival and heartbreak and fear and close calls.

I especially appreciated the true-story nature of the book, since I'm getting a little tired of people mining WWII for an automatic compelling backdrop to their stories.

Highly recommended read.

Any story involving the Holocaust has always caught my attention. I received this as an ARC from NetGalley and I am so pleased that I did.
It is the story of the Kurc family and their journey's from each other over the course of that horrific war and finding their way back to one another. It has heartbreak and loss, but also joy and love. I hoped along with them that they would find their way back to each other. I fell in love with the characters and with the beautiful writing. It is in some ways the same as many other Holocaust stories but it is also different and there are sides of the war that I had not seen or read about before. I enjoyed each member of the family's story and following them through to the end.
A beautiful story, that anyone who likes reading about this time in history will enjoy.

Georgia Hunter has written a moving account of her Grandfather's family experience that begins just before the WW II German invasion of Poland. Addy Kurc, his parents and his four siblings are the subjects of this story which focuses on the Jewish population and their persecution during the Nazi invasion. This book is based on true events taken from the author's own research and from oral histories that her relatives shared.
What makes the novel exceptional is the author's ability to focus on individual family members and their own stories as they were driven out of their homes and assigned to the ghetto or to a concentration camp. This is an account of the Kurc family's perseverance and love as well as their struggles to survive. There are scenes of intense bravery and horrific conditions that were experienced by each family member as well as their neighbors. It also highlights the uncertainty and fears that this family faced once the war was over. They were now refugees, homeless and frustrated as they tried to find out if their loved ones were alive or dead. We Were The Lucky Ones portrays the Kurc Family's survival, fears and happiness during a decade of death and destruction. The book is well researched and riveting.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an Advanced Readers Copy. This is an honest review.

This book was an amazing story of family of Polish Jews that lived through the horrors of WWII. It was incredibly well written and moving. The stories of the family members individually were amazing- they were courageous, resilient and persevered through unthinkable circumstances. The Author's Notes and Acknowledgements at the end of the book spoke to the love that the author felt for this project and making sure that the story of her family will never to be forgotten.

I'm not sure where to start in summing up my feelings on this book. My emotions ran the gamut as I read. I felt like a used up, wet dishrag afterward; too soppy to move, too emotionally spent to speak. This book is powerful, aching heartbreak wrapped up in hope and love, and tied together with beautiful writing.

One of the things that makes this book exceptional is the underlying truth of the story. I don't mean the truth of the Holocaust, which is difficult enough to fathom in an abstract way. I'm talking about the truth of the characters, who are in fact loosely fictionalized members of the author's family. I cannot even begin to put myself in that place where they existed. I have no words for how I felt about their courage and absolute grace, while the world raged around them and against them.

This is an impossibly difficult, emotional read, in part because of the truth of it, but also because of Georgia Hunter's writing. She puts us there, in the heart of the Holocaust, from beginning to end. She lets us feel what the characters felt. She shows us what they see. Hunter's research is impeccable. At the start of each chapter, she orients us with a short paragraph or two, with the year, place, and what was happening with the war at that time. Then she takes us deep into that place and time, like she has opened a curtain on the past.

At the end of the book, the author shares how she learned about her family's history, and she updates us on all the family members we meet in this story. I am astounded by this family's resilience. We can all learn from their ability to move past unfathomable horror and not just survive, but thrive.

This is an excellent book and a phenomenal story. So many World War II books are available and popular right now, but this one being a true story made me actually nervous as I read it. Their courage, their desperation, and their love for each other all comes through as they try to escape the giant fist that is closing on Poland.

I recommend it highly, not only to those interested in World War II but to anyone who just likes an exciting read.

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, is the story of the Polish Jewish Kurc family from late 1938 through 1947. I didn't quite realize until I read the author's note at the end of the book that the novel was the true story of the author's family during the Holocaust and immediately after. I was awed by the research that went into gathering the details of what happened to the family of 3 brothers, 2 sisters, their parents, and cousins. What happened to Polish Jews during the Holocaust is well known and documented, but this novel brought it home on a very personal level. No Jew in Nazi occupied Poland was "lucky" and their struggle to survive was extraordinary. The novel takes the reader from Poland ( Radon, Lvov, Warsaw) to Paris, to the Mediterranean, Brazil, to Siberia, to Italy, where the Polish army joins the Allies against Germany as it follows the brothers and sisters during the war. I don't often cry seeing movies or reading books, but I definitely had tears in my eyes reading the last chapter of this book. There were some details, which I found too contrived (e.g. a two and a half year old child being able to understand what's happening and behaving accordingly, etc.) but overall this was a very powerful novel and I strongly recommend it.
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher Viking and the author Georgia Hunter for allowing me to preview this book. I wish the author much success upon publishing.

This is the story of the Kurc family, a Jewish family living in Radom, Poland, in the beginning of March of 1939. The exception being one son, Addy, living in the heart of Toulouse, who returns twice a year to Radom for Rosh Hashanah and Passover. He loves his family, but there’s an energy to Montmartre with its artists and musicians, the clubs he can’t quite bring himself to leave. You wouldn’t think anyone had a care in the world there.

There’s been talk around, some graffiti, but nothing alarming, everything appeared very much still contained to Germany. Until that was no longer true. A day, a week, a moment later… life changed, little by little, people accepting the “small” changes. Best not to make a fuss when it’s just one change. One more change.

Although this is Historical Fiction, this is based on the real-life story of Georgia Hunter’s grandfather, who was one of the members of this real family. Even though I was aware of this being based on the lives of actual people, this doesn’t read like a memoir, there is an essence of a multi-generational family saga that sweeps over six years time and five different continents to place the reader in a time and place so easily recognized now for what it was. You get to know this family, their quirks, their differences, and their unique personalities. As you may expect, there are trials that each of these individuals must make it through. The never-ending fear. The constant worrying about those loved ones. Where were they? How were they? Will they ever see them again? Are they even alive? So much heartache and heartbreak. All the time knowing that worse had happened, was happening, over and over again.

I really appreciated that the chapters in this story began with the date and location along with the historical aspect of what occurred on that date, as well as the name(s) of the character(s) focused on in that chapter.

I loved reading the Author’s Note at the end, and the inclusion of a photo of her with her grandfather, how she came to find out his real-life story, and how much research went into this novel. The real-life events mentioned in the telling of this story, as well as the story behind the naming of this book, are discussed in the Author’s Note, so make sure you read this after you’ve finished the story.

Pub Date: 14 Feb 2017

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Penguin Group / Viking

Does a good job of capturing the horror and angst of the times, and is a loving tribute to the author’s family history.