THEY WERE LIKE FAMILY TO ME (FORMERLY IN THE LAND OF ARMADILLOS)
Book ID/图书代码： 06840015B82288
English Summary/英文概要： A radiant debut collection of linked stories from a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, set in a German-occupied town in Poland, where mythic tales of Jewish folklore meet the real-life monsters of the Nazi invasion.
1942. With the Nazi Party at the height of its power, the occupying army empties Poland’s towns and cities of their Jewish populations. As neighbor turns on neighbor and survival often demands unthinkable choices, Poland has become a moral quagmire—a place of shifting truths and blinding ambiguities.
Blending folklore and fact, Helen Maryles Shankman shows us the people of Wlodawa, a remote Polish town: we meet a cold-blooded SS officer dedicated to rescuing the Jewish creator of his son’s favorite picture book,
even as he helps exterminate the artist’s friends and family; a Messiah who appears in a little boy’s bedroom to announce that he is quitting; a young Jewish girl who is hidden by the town’s most outspoken anti-Semite—and his talking dog. And walking among these tales are two unforgettable figures: the enigmatic and silver-tongued Willy Reinhart, Commandant of the forced labor camp who has grand schemes to protect “his” Jews, and Soroka, the Jewish saddlemaker and his family, struggling to survive.
Channeling the mythic magic of classic storytellers like Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer and the psychological acuity of modern-day masters like Nicole Krauss and Nathan Englander, In the Land of Armadillos is a testament to the persistence of humanity in the most inhuman conditions.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 这是一部令人瞩目的合集。两届小推车奖提名作者在其首部合集中为大家讲述了多个互相交织的故事——这些故事发生在被德国占领的波兰小镇上，犹太人民间传说中的神话故事与现实生活中的纳粹入侵怪兽在这里相遇……
1942年，纳粹党正处于权力巅峰时期，被军队占领的波兰城镇陷入了不分是非的道德泥潭。
作者在本书中将传说与事实有机融合，为读者描绘了波兰边远小镇Wlodawa的人民：一个冷血的士兵，一心要把儿子最爱的图画书的犹太作家解救出来，但同时却在杀害作家的朋友和家人；一个解放者出现在一个小男孩的卧室里宣称自己要推出；镇上最直言不讳的反闪米特人的人和他会说话的狗将一个犹太小女孩藏了起来……
这部作品将传统故事的神秘魔法与现代作家对心理的精确表达巧妙融合，展现了在最不人道的环境下人类坚持不懈的精神。（LYR）
Awards/获奖情况：“That Shankman can blend fact and fiction and make it all ring true is a testament to her fine writing.” --The Jewish Standard
“作者将事实与虚构巧妙结合，让一切变得真实可信，充分证明了她高超的写作能力。”——《The Jewish Standard》
About the Author/作者介绍： HELEN MARYLES SHANKMAN。父母、祖父母、叔叔、阿姨都曾经是大屠杀的幸存者。因此，她的许多作品中的事件都取材于大屠杀的真实事件。她的短篇小说发表于各类文学期刊、杂志。小说《他们就像我的亲人（They Were Like Family to Me）》曾获得小推车奖提名。她在艺术方面也颇有造诣，曾经从事艺术助理、平面设计师的工作。还受雇在克林顿执政期间为希拉里克林顿创作肖像画。
Shankman’s stories appear, or are forthcoming, in The Kenyon Review, Gargoyle, Cream City Review, Grift, Jewishfiction.net, and various other publications.
She was a finalist in Narrative Magazine’s Winter 2010 Story Contest, and earned an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s August 2010 Short Story Award for New Writers competition. Her story, They Were Like Family to Me, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Shankman spent four years working in Tribeca as an artist’s assistant, followed by two years working at Conde Nast as a graphic designer, assisting the great Alexander Liberman as he did a radical redesign for Self Magazine. After Self, she returned to school to study classical technique at the New York Academy of Art, where she was awarded a Warhol Foundation Scholarship. Shortly after earning her MFA, she was invited to become a member of the First Street Gallery. Her artwork has been displayed in numerous exhibitions in and around New York City. She has painted many commissioned portraits, including one of Hillary Clinton that was presented to the White House while she was First Lady.
Her parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts are Holocaust survivors. Many of the events in her fiction are based on personal family stories of Holocaust loss and survival.
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Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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