Your Roots Cast a Shadow

"With a nimble mind and a steamer trunk of emotions, Topperman's account of her shaky repatriation to her family's native Poland bristles with fear and adventure. She serves as an excellent tour guide to the unexpected joys of Warsaw and a bold interrogator of her family's peripatetic history.  Anyone who has ever gone down a genealogy rabbit hole will appreciate her reconstruction of past generations. Ultimately, Topperman is an intrepid surveyor of what makes a place feel like home."  

–Lisa Levy, writer, essayist, and critic 
“Your Roots Cast a Shadow is a fascinating exploration of identity and belonging, refracted through Caroline Topperman’s research and imaginings of the turbulent, complex lives of her grandparents and parents. Using archival materials and personal correspondence, Topperman reconstructs her maternal grandparents’ flight from Nazi-occupied Poland, not along the more usual path to Western Europe or North America, but eastward into Soviet Russia. This is a well-written book that reads in some parts like an action-packed thriller, and in others as an introspective search through history and ideology to uncover the truth about her family and herself. Readers will find much to learn and enjoy as they follow Topperman on this personal and multi-layered journey.” 

–Dr. Nora Gold, author of In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym and 18: Jewish Stories Translated From 18 Languages; editor of Jewish Fiction .net
“Caroline Topperman, a curious, bold, and compassionate writer, reinvents herself in new places, tells frank, well-paced stories about the living, and writes so powerfully about ancestors that they seem alive. She questions herself and readers: Can you guess? Are you able to imagine? Her historical an­­d geographical imagination roams deftly across Canada, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Russia and the United States. Her ancestors cast shadows but shed light on current questions: Are you communist, Jewish, Catholic, liberal, conservative? Do political, genealogical, religious and national categories make messes of human lives, or do they orient lives like a compass? Topperman’s account of her family history is an alluring lead into global controversies.­­” 

–Dr. Ronald L. Grimes, author of Deeply into the Bone: Reinventing Rites of Passage 
“Braiding together generational stories and memories, Caroline Topperman guides readers through decades of one family’s hopes and struggles during harrowing political times and highlights the complexity of family relationships. Your Roots Cast a Shadow is meticulously researched and beautifully written with compassion and honesty. This memoir speaks to our interconnectedness and will have you reflecting on your own family story and its place in the world.” 

–Liisa Kovala, author of Sisu's Winter War and Surviving Stutthof 
“Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down! Your Roots Cast a Shadow expertly connects the present with the past as the author takes you on an emotional journey of how historical events shaped the lives of her family over three generations.” 

–Miranda Schell, author of Save Me a Dance and Paint Me a Story