·AUDIBLE Listening Length: 12 hours and 18 minutes
·Program Type: Audiobook
·Version: Unabridged
·Publisher: Ralph Webster
·Audible.com Release Date: September 14, 2018
·Whispersync for Voice: Ready
·Language: English, English
·ASIN: B07HB99HLR
I seldom review audiobooks but I found the audiobook One More Moon by Ralph Webster to be a brilliant historical memoir.
Synopsis
In 1934, at age 51, Elsa's sheltered life in Mussolini's Fascist Italy changes remarkably when she and her husband, Paul, purchased the Pensione Alexandria overlooking the Mediterranean in Naples. Though German Jews, they are embraced by their Italian neighbors and for the next several years the pensione flourishes and becomes their perch to observe the world's events. Travelers from across Europe and America come to the door, each with their own story, mystery, or surprise. Nearly all have been touched in some way by the ominous changes occurring to the north, in Nazi-controlled Germany.
When war breaks out in Europe and Italy sides with Germany, Elsa and her family's fears are quickly realized. The growing sense that the atrocities in German-occupied lands will soon occur in Italy forces them to sell their pensione and attempt a desperate journey to safety in America. The way seems impossible. Day by day, war makes travel increasingly difficult as countries begin closing their doors to refugees.
Told in Elsa's words and written by her grandson, One More Moon is the extraordinary story of a woman and her family's often harrowing experiences in the years before and during World War II.”
My Thoughts
This story is told in 98-year-old Elsa’s words and written by her grandson, Ralph Webster. I was enthralled with the writing style and it being voiced by Nina Price and became further wrapped up in the story as it progressed.
Elsa, as a young German Jew, visited Italy and fell in love with Paul. They married and raised four children together while Paul was in the export business.
As this was during times of the great depression, money was tight so they purchased the Pensione Alexandra, a hotel/boarding house with a view of the Bay of Naples. They became Italian citizens who identified as Germans. As were many, they were horrified by stories of Hitler and concerned with Mussolini's fascism. Eventually, they realized that leaving Italy must happen.
In America they had family who would be willing to take them in. However, due to the United States tightening the immigration laws after war broke out in Europe, they made an intermediate stop in Cuba, prior coming to America.
In America they had family who would be willing to take them in. However, due to the United States tightening the immigration laws after war broke out in Europe, they made an intermediate stop in Cuba, prior coming to America.
This is a compelling and captivating read and Webster brilliantly captures his grandmother's mood in a way that tantalizes and yet frightens.
About the Author
Award winning author Ralph Webster received worldwide acclaim for his first book, A Smile in One Eye: A Tear in the Other, which tells the story of his father’s flight from the Holocaust. Voted by readers as a Goodreads 2016 Choice Awards Nominee for Best Memoir/ Autobiography, A Smile in One Eye: A Tear in the Other and this second book, One More Moon, are proven book club selections for thought-provoking and engaging discussions.
Whether in person or online, Ralph welcomes and values his exchanges with readers and makes every effort to participate in conversations about his books. Now retired, he lives with his wife, Ginger, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In addition to writing, he enjoys spending his time with family, playing tennis, hiking, and traveling the world. Ralph can be reached through his website. www.onemoremoon.com
Now, onto the interview.
Ralph, Why did you choose to focus on your Grandmother’s story at this extraordinary time?
Lori, thank you for asking that question. As you know, One More Moon is the true story of my grandmother’s journey from her comfortable life at the Pensione Alexandra in Naples, Italy to America - after Mussolini and the Fascists joined with Hitler - and as countries across the world closed their doors to Jewish refugees fleeing the spread of Nazi evil.
Here is why I wrote the story. Three years ago my wife Ginger and I took an extended trip backpacking, hiking, and biking across Europe. I suppose you could say we were celebrating the good life. Ironically our trip coincided with the escalating refugee crisis. Refugees in large numbers were searching for safety, security, and economic opportunity. They were fleeing Syria and other areas under siege with literally the clothes on their backs. At night we watched news reports on CNN and BBC. And, by day, we encountered groups on trains, at train stations, in cities, in small towns, and at border crossings.
Right in front of our eyes we watched mothers, fathers, children, and groups of young men literally struggling to survive. Many had left successful lives in their past - something one might not notice by observing because when they fled they were all penniless and had no choice but to leave everything they owned behind.
We saw conversations and confrontations with authorities - some civil, some heated. We recognized the difficulty and frustration in trying to communicate across the medium of different languages. It was easy to see that these were people simply looking for a hand up, not a hand out. And, we saw a similar difficulty and frustration as governments and politicians tried to wrap their heads around this issue.
Watching brought tears to our eyes. I hope we all feel compassion for those forced to leave the lands of their mothers and fathers through no fault of their own. And, this helped me to understand that my family had experienced this when they were given no choice but to leave their homelands. That’s why I have written my books. By writing I want to add my contribution to the world’s understanding. It makes me angry that some political leaders are using refugee and immigration issues to divide us and create the politics of fear.
My family may have come to America in a different time - and, yes, it was a different circumstance and a different generation. Yet, I am certain that the hardships and the feelings were much the same - the anguish, the loss, the confusion, the uncertainty, the isolation, the fears, the unknown, the way others reacted.
I want others to understand the personal depth of this humanitarian crisis. Mine is not a plea for money nor am I trying to make a political statement. Immigration is a complicated topic both for those leaving and for those accepting. My plea is simply for compassion, respect, and dignity. I want us all to recognize that refugees, those forced to leave the lands of their mothers and fathers, are the victims. They should never be made to be the enemy.
This is the 2nd book you have written about a family member. Can you tell us about that process, and is it difficult?
I think anytime one writes about family, it can be difficult and challenging. Certainly opinions and perceptions of family members are not all the same. There are secrets, emotions, and experiences that need to be respected. Asking family members to review what has been written can become an eye-opening and gut-wrenching process. It is not always comfortable. I think the writer has to be prepared for this journey. It involves far more than just putting words down on paper. History has a selected way of remembering and one always has to be aware of that. Not everyone sees things the same way.
This memoir begins when your grandmother is young. Did she feel she was naïve in comparison to other young women around her during that time?
Without question, she believed she was naive but I suspect that was the way many women believed at that time. She had grown up in the Victorian era and the rules for women were quite different - particularly in Naples. Mussolini’s view of the world was that the role for women was to produce babies while men were supposed to be soldiers. In the book, my grandmother says “today women talk about glass ceilings....I grew up in an era when the glass ceilings were held up by four glass walls.”
I think a big part of the story is how being the proprietress of the Pensione Alexandra gave her a perch to see that the world was a much bigger and complicated place than the world she had been taught to know. She was witness to the rise of both Hitler and Mussolini. Then she found her family’s lives overtaken by the terrible events that overtook much of Europe. That’s when she had to run for her life too.
Interestingly, this book shows how we as a society are continuing to change our ideas on what is and what is not inappropriate behavior can you speak to this?
Oh, the world was so different at that time - no internet, no texting, no mobile phones. I am sure that contributes but I am not sure that we really evolve in the way your question suggests. I am always struck by the dangers of nationalism - how one society can believe that they are so superior than another - how one group of people can believe that they are more deserving than another.
Inappropriate behavior (and much worse) is a byproduct. How else can one explain how a nation of more than 60 million people could stand idly by while their leaders sought to eliminate the Jewish race from the face of the earth. Given the events we are observing throughout the world today I question how well we are doing when it comes to inappropriate behavior. I am saddened by how so many of our politicians act. And, I believe that societies still sit idle and allow that to happen. That troubles me.
What would you like people to know most about this book?
I hope readers will take its message to heart. There will always be reasons forcing people to migrate - to run for their lives and leave their homelands. That is the inconvenient truth. People may not always flee because of dictators and tyrants, or safety and security, or race or religion.
It may be because of earthquakes, fires, and other natural disasters. It may be because there is not enough food or because of rising sea levels. Others may simply be searching for a better life for their children. That is the nature of our world and the nature of humans. The world must find ways to civilly accommodate this phenomenon. That will not always be comfortable. We may have to be prepared to give what others might take. I hope we will learn to treat others in the way we would want to be treated.
My books are not about heroes - simply about ordinary people persevering through extraordinary times. I am writing about people like you and me - how sometimes in order to survive one has to put one foot before the other and take one step at a time. And, I am afraid that if we fail to understand that the world is our collective melting pot, the legacy of the Holocaust may become the legacy of our civilization.
What activities do you do when you are not writing?
Actually becoming an author was never part of my life’s plan. While writing fills a big part of my life now, it was never a career choice. In school, I was the kid sent to wood shop class and never advanced English. My aptitude was always numbers and never words. Most of my career revolved around a small software company I started and later sold to my employees.
Writing books became a hobby after I retired and only after trying on a variety of other retirement hats - becoming an emergency medical technician and driving the fire trucks and ambulances, spending hours on the beach with my metal detector, guiding a historical preservation project, raising funds for our local hospice organization, trying to learn how to speak Spanish, understanding how to write apps for Androids, taking calculus courses online.
I have settled on writing. It makes me believe I am leaving something small and noteworthy for future generations. Apart from spending time with family and friends, traveling, hiking, playing tennis, fishing, mowing the lawn, and growing tomatoes, I can’t think of much else I would rather be doing.
What books do you like to read?
I do enjoy reading. Oddly, I have learned that I lose all interest in reading when I am working on a book. I am not sure why but I find it difficult to keep my concentration on - probably because I don’t want to compare my style of writing with the way others write. I suppose I am afraid to see my weaknesses. As far as reading goes, I tend to enjoy serious books that have a well-written story. How they begin and how they end are very important to me.
My interests are wide - biographies, historical, colorful, political. One author who always comes to mind is Carlos Ruiz Zafrόn. I thought the Shadow of the Wind was an absolutely wonderful book. I like authors who make the story authentic and write to entertain, inform, and excite the reader. I want a book to take me to a dimension I have never visited before.
Is there anything else you'd like to tell readers?
I just want to give a simple plug for the audiobook version of One More Moon. I never paid much attention to audiobooks but that has now changed. Nina Price, the narrator, has given an amazing performance - totally captivating. She lifts the words right off the paper and certainly improves the book. It is like having your grandmother still be alive to tell you a story - one that as a child I never paid too much attention to. Then, the words went in one ear and out the other. Now, I recognize the questions I never asked. Now, as an adult, I am mesmerized.