Anya MP3 CD – Unabridged, May 17, 2016

I am a big reader of holocaust survivor stories. This is a novel but I can see that in the real history this story could have easily have played out. I have never read such a detailed account of a life. It is nothing short of amazing the detail from page one. This author takes you into the world of this young Russian Jewish woman and you become Anya. You feel the texture of the wallpaper and hear the crystal tinkle in the china cabinet. You are so a part of her life that you then can really know what she gives up when the war starts and being Jewish is a death sentence.The book is a large size paperback not like the grocery store size but it has small print. It has 490+ pages so if it was in the normal size print it would have been a 1000 page book. It is a long book but you still do not want it to end...that is a great book.Anya is an amazing character. Her Russian family is living in Poland when the war breaks out. She is attending medical school and has a bright future. Then her world is shattered. Her will to live is all based on wanting to find her daughter whom she gave to the care of Christians at the time she was in the ghetto and all of the children are being rounded up.Anya survives and so does her child---not a spoiler that is right on the back cover but the cost has been dear. You feel with Anya how it is to have your child not know you as her Mama, the feelings of why me why did I survive and not my dear Mother or sister? The book takes you pre-war, war and post war. All in such vivid details that you almost cannot seperate yourself from what is the novel and what is reality.I just cannot give high enough praise to this writer. The characters are real and true to historical accounts. There is a study group guide at the end of the book that is good even if you are just reading it yourself. The author has based the story on things she learned from real survivors. This statement really hit me "When I came to know a survivor about whom I cared, my fear was replaced by an obsessive need to know the truth about what I, and many around me, had carefully obscured."There are books far and few between that you say AHHHH that was just the best! Then it seems like fr a while nothing measures up to it. This is one of those books now for me. On my top 10 list and I am sure I will read it again.

I read this book back in the early 1980's. I am now thrilled to be reading it again. The book is so unbelievably moving and endearing, riveting in fact, one simply cannot put it down or find it soul changing. I am absolutely in love with Anya, her family and cannot express my admiration for this very well done book. It is a true work of art and honors both those who died during the Holocaust, who will NEVER be mourned for enough, and those who survived who carry the memories, their own stories and the stories of those who died. Those who died, lived, loved and vanished cruelly from this earth. The shame and horror must always and forever be remembered and honored. Schaeffer does just that with this book!

This book should be a required read for EVERYONE!!! This story is incredible. It is especially frightening and sickening to realize how people during that time suffered and survived. I will never understand how humans can treat other humans with such disregard. HATE has been and always will be the biggest disease that challenges humanity. Many people including myself take too much for granted. I am a bookaholic and this is one of the best books I have ever read. It starts off a little slow but then it comes alive. I had to make myself put it down so I could make the book last longer. I have read so many stories about the holocaust THIS ONE IS THE BEST! I don't ever write reviews but this one needs to be NOTICED! GREAT READ!!!

I first found this book in the early 1970s, in a grocery store. I couldn't put it down, and I re-read it several times, most recently when my eyes couldn't handle the small print. This was my first book about the Holocaust, and it has always been the one I compare the others to. I can't express enough how great this book is, and how it opened my eyes to history. If you can find a hardcover copy, you won't be sorry. I agree with a previous reviewer, who said that this book should be reissued.

I love this book; I've read it many times and will do so again. The haunting story, of family, love and friendship set squarely in the horror of the Holocaust is so intimate in its narration that the reader feels as if she/he is reading her own family story. The author's writing style is unique: dense, immediate, full of poetic repetition and language. Some have described it as a "mythological" narrative, but to me, it's more intimate than mythology--more like a fairy tale in the way the Fromberg Schaeffer layers her details and uses the suggestion of exaggeration for effect.I won't go into the details of the story--plenty of other reviewers have done that. The reason I gave this "item" 4 stars instead of 5 has nothing to do with the quality of the story. What I don't like is the way this particular edition was printed. The type is cramped and difficult to read; there's hardly any space between sentences. This is all the more noticeable because Schaeffer's writing style consists of many run-on sentences and paragraphs. I can't read it without getting eyestrain (and I have new glasses).The edition does not in any way do justice to the novel, except for the fact that someone finally realized it was long overdue for a reprint. Even the paper feels cheap. This may sound picky; but my affection and respect for this novel is such that I would like to see it printed with the quality it deserves.

Anya is one of the best novels ever written about the Holocaust--and one of the most under credited. Perhaps it is because the writer, now deceased, is so little known. Reading Anya, I was at once living in Poland, spending summers at the Daucha and going to medical school with Anya-- as Hitler was preparing to attack Warsaw. Once Poland was hit, Anya and her family's lives were shattered as they lost everything, fighting to stay together. only Anya and her daughter survive in the end. Anya is beautifully written, and when you have finished, you feel you know every inch of Anya's idyllic life before Hitler and after her family and country are destroyed. A must-read!

Read this the first time in university and it was the first novel I’d read about the holocaust and was completely overtaken by the story and the character of Anya. Just reread it 40 years later and still found it a very compelling story, although it didn’t cast the same spell as the first time I read it. Anya’s life before, during and after the war is rendered in great detail. It’s a long book, but I appreciate the care Fromberg takes to truly evoke each period in Anya’s life and never found any of it boring. For me it was all fascinating information. Anya’s good and bad character traits are laid out for the reader and the book beautifully illustrates the impact of the war on Anya, her family, especially her relationship with her daughter Ninushka, the society they lived in, the choices made both good and bad to survive. Would have liked to know a bit more about Ninka as an adult, but that’s a minor complaint. Don’t want to say any more about the plot, but I would highly recommend this book. It stays with you long after you have put it down.

Read this book years ago and couldn't put it down. When I came across it again I was thrilled to know I could purchase and read it once again! It's definitely on my top five favorites!

A book to read and re-read.