Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy of the audiobook for Laren Grodstein's We Must Not Think of Ourselves. I enjoyed every bit of it. The narration was superb. The book could not be more relevant today to help people understand what happened to the Jews of Warsaw in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. This historical novel tells the story of a man who was a English teacher and a participant in the Oneg Shabbat project, creating an archive of the stories of the Jewish people in the ghetto. In many ways, the notion of the archive itself was prophetic as to the ultimate end that the Jews would face.

The book could not be more relevant today, given the massive rise we have seen in anti-semitism. The locking of the Jews of Poland into a ghetto, and then their forced deportation to a concentration camp (Treblinka - where approximately 400,000 Jews of Warsaw met their death, usually within an hour after arriving) needs to be understood.

This book should be required reading.

Before reading "We Must Not Think of Ourselves," I hadn't delved into historical fiction for quite some time. However, I'm pleased that I decided to step outside my usual reading preferences. The novel's concept, centered around the Oneg Shabbat archives, which aimed to document the lives of Jewish people in the Warsaw ghetto, is truly remarkable.

One of the standout aspects of the book was the interviews conducted by the protagonist, Adam Paskow, an English teacher, with his students and housemates as part of the project. These interactions provided engaging and insightful moments within the narrative, and I found myself wishing they had occupied more space in the story. Paskow's role as a teacher, forming close bonds with his students amid such unimaginable circumstances, was a compelling representation of adults striving to create a semblance of normality for children.

Grodstein is undoubtedly a gifted writer, and she effectively captures the oscillation between hope and profound despair that the characters endure in the ghetto. However, her language often maintains a matter-of-fact tone. While this choice aligns with the novel's basis in documentation, it left me yearning for a deeper exploration of the characters' emotional lives and more introspection, which would have made the story feel less detached.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves follows Adam Paskow, an English teacher, who joins a covert group of archivists to gather stories from the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. I thought this was such a smart way to approach telling the story since we get to see many different experiences through the interviews Adam does as well as through the interactions he has with his students and roommates. The most powerful thing about this book were the stories depicting different types of love and what these characters were willing to sacrifice to try and save their loved ones. It was a very timely read and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. It did take me a minute to really connect with the characters, but by the end I was super invested in them. The ending was not what I was expecting, but after sitting with it, I thought it was very poignant and appropriate to the message of the book.

A story that must be told - lest we repeat it. Jews were forced into the Warsaw ghetto by the Nazis. There they suffered and starved and feared for their lives. Even then, they realized that their story must be told. The main character was chosen to interview others in the ghetto. It’s horrifying what those people endured - all the while fearing that things could be worse.

This was an excellent audiobook with wonderful readers.

A historical fiction set in the time period of World War II, but thankfully we are not inside a concentration camp, but conditions are close in this Warsaw Ghetto. A teacher, Adam Paskow is living in an apartment with two other families as they are just trying to survive until this war ends. Adam is asked to document the lives of those living in the Warsaw Ghetto and recording the big and the small of life inside in hopes that it can be shared when all is said and done.

While I do read a lot of historical fiction, I tend to limit my reading of World War II books because it all just seems so sad and while I am not denying the horror of it, I don't want to read too much of it. This one sounded interesting from the synopsis and it lived up to my wonder of how this author would share this community at this time. I loved how Grodstein made me feel the humanity of these characters, they weren't just a number in a war, but instead we learned of their back stories and I liked reading the mundane of the day to day survival of it all.

My first read of Lauren Grodstein and will by no means by my last. I would love to read her two previous novels and then I surely hope for more in the future. This is a book I will recommend to readers who haven't read a lot of World War II AND for those who feel they have read it all!

I both listened to and read an ecopy and I loved that I had both formats. The narrator felt so authentic and really gave life to this novel and I felt as though I was really hearing Adam share his story while listening.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves tells the story of Adam Paskow, who is recruited by the Oneg Shabbat just months after being relocated to a shared apartment in Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto. Emanuel Ringelblum, the group’s leader, explains to Adam that his assignment is to record “all the details, even if they seem insignificant. I don’t want you to decide what’s significant. . . . Our task is to pay attention. To listen to the stories.”
So Adam begins to conduct interviews with his flatmates as well as with children from the English class he teaches. Acting as something of a Greek chorus, these voices vacillate between the mundane, the macabre and occasional moments of joy, demonstrating how the community doggedly clings to any semblance of normalcy. We come to see that, for Adam and all the Jews stripped of their rights and freedoms, it is an act of resistance to simply persist in the business of daily living and continue to enjoy simple pleasures wherever they may be found.
Adam also transcribes his own life story, musing not only on his increasingly bleak present reality but also his life before the war, when he worked at a prestigious school and was happily married until his wife’s tragic death. Though he believes the great love of his life is behind him, we witness Adam slowly form a romantic connection with Sala, a married mother with whom he now shares cramped living quarters. Their mutual attachment transforms their time in the ghetto into something more than survival.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for this audio e-arc.*

i enjoy a good historical fiction. this was an interesting take on the holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto

A heart-wrenching story of love and defiance set in the Warsaw Ghetto, based on the actual archives kept by thosedetermined to have their stories survive World War II

On a November day in 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards, and await an uncertain fate. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising Will he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends, and neighbors. He learns about their childhoods and their daydreams, their passions and their fears, their desperate strategies for safety and survival. The stories form a portrait of endurance in a world where no choices are good ones.
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