The True Adventures of Gidon Lev: Rascal. Holocaust Survivor. Optimist.

Product Description

Selected as one of the Best Books of 2020 by the Kirkus Review, The True Adventures of Gidon Lev is the quirky, hopeful, and thoroughly inspirational story of the unusual life of a Holocaust survivor and the writer who loved him. Of the 15,000 children in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic, fewer than 100 survived. Gidon Lev is one of those children. One part memoir, one part travelogue, and one part history that you thought you knew, The True Adventures is a love letter to life that IndieReader called “Inventively structured and impeccably written.” (5 star review)

Review

“In this elegantly conceived memoir…is a remarkable tale of survival and unexpected kinship. A vitally important Holocaust story eruditely captured.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Inventively structured and impeccably written, THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF GIDON LEV is a must-read book for anyone interested in Holocaust narratives.”
–IndieReader (five star review) 

“Gray weaves her story with a soft, human elegance that colors the whole affair with the hues of a coffee-table conversation, while affecting a scholarly vernacular that elucidates and entertains in equal measure.”

–BookLife

“…the compelling biography of a Holocaust survivor who attests that human beings are capable of both incredible evil and transcendent love.”
–Foreword Reviews

 “Author Julie Gray gives voice to Gidon Lev’s story of resilience and hope in this uplifting portrait of Holocaust survival. …readers will find Gidon’s story an inviting, eye-opening look at an important chapter in Jewish history.
–Blue Ink Review

“The True Adventures of Gidon Lev is an inspiring, riveting memoir of survival, adventure, and the unyielding power of a loving human heart.”
— Aspen Matis, Bestselling author of Your Blue Is Not My Blue and Girl in the Woods

“This is a highly recommended memoir that rises above and beyond politics, Middle East history, or autobiography alike to reveal the path one man took to move beyond an incredibly difficult childhood of cruelty and oppression.”
–D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“…a delightful, moving, original, and yes, charming account of an extraordinary man who happens to have been a child survivor of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. With irreverent humor and deep insight, The True Adventures of Gidon Lev presents an improbable love story–of a man who had every reason to be bitter but instead fell in love with life.
–Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, author of “Like Dreamers” and “Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor”
 
“How do we remember in order to learn, and learn in order to build a better world–while not letting the Holocaust eclipse our life-affirming purpose and values? In The True Adventures, truth–that is to say searching, love, humor, anger, despair, hope–is not shrouded in dark clouds, but aglow amidst them. Wonder of wonders, it is exactly through this tale, a tale with the Holocaust at its essence, that a new light is shed on Jewish possibility and purpose.”
–Rabbi Susan Silverman, author of “Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World”

About the Author

Julie Gray was born in 1964 in the San Joaquin Valley in California. A longtime Huffington Post contributor, Julie has been published in the Sanskrit Literary Journal, Moment Magazine, The Times of Israel, MovieMaker Magazine, Script Magazine, Hip Mama and the Jewish Journal. Her essay The Freaking Autumn of My Life was included in the anthology Aging: An Apprenticeship. A veteran essayist and editor, Julie moved to Israel in 2012 and is working on her memoir They Do Things Differently Here.