Awake In the Dark, Shira Nayman
Awake In the Dark, Shira Nayman
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Awake In the Dark
Stories

Author: Shira Nayman

Narrator: Antoinette LaVecchia, Juliana Sass

Unabridged: 9 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/09/2025


Synopsis

Bold and deeply affecting, Awake in the Dark is a provocative and haunting work of fiction about who we are and how we are formed by history. These luminous stories portray the contemporary lives of the children of Holocaust victims and perpetrators as they struggle with the legacy of their parents--their questions of identity, family, and faith.
In "The House on Kronen-strasse," a woman returns to Germany to find her childhood home; in "The Porcelain Monkey," the shocking origins of an Orthodox Jewish woman's faith are revealed; in "The Lamp," the harrowing experiences of a young woman leave her with the perfect daughter and a strange light; and in "Dark Urgings of the Blood," a patient is convinced that she shares a disturbing history with her psychiatrist.
Rendered in powerful, unaffected prose, Awake in the Dark is an illuminating and startling book about the disguises we don, the secrets we keep, and the consequences of our silences.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Micheal on June 05, 2010

I was amazed, no, powerfully moved by these stories. They tended to intensify as I read. The one thing that fascinated me most was the subject of silence. It informed all of the stories. If you cannot speak of something, you remain silent, or something like that according to Nietzsche. I have notice......more

Goodreads review by Linda on September 30, 2012

This is a book of short stories, superbly written. Each story is a tale of the holocaust seen through the eyes of the children of the survivors. The most powerful story is The House o fKronenstrasse wherein a daughter who, after her mother dies, returns to Germany. Seeking her childhood home, she di......more

Goodreads review by Kristin on August 30, 2011

This book is tagged as a series of short stories, however it is more like 3 short stories that lead you into a short novel. Though none of the stories are directly related, all are stories that stem from Nazi Germany, all bringing different light and touching on different experiences of the period.......more

Goodreads review by Karen on February 09, 2013

This book will shake you to the core, particularly the last story "dark urgings of the blood". Nayman is a brilliant storyteller, able to draw the reader deep into the scene through her effective use of telling the story in present tense in the first person voice of the central character, the daught......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on June 27, 2012

It's hard to find a book to really WOW me but this book did just that. Every story just kept getting better and better and the twists at the end of each story were just amazing, and sent chills up my spine every time. I recommended this book to every body and would re read it over and over again.......more