When We Return

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Pub Date 17 May 2022 | Archive Date 29 Jul 2022
Greenleaf Book Group | River Grove Books

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Description

Who should be held responsible for public wrongs?

By 2008, it finally seems that the Peruvian government is ready to make amends to its citizens following the violent guerilla movement of the last three decades.

Otilia and Salvador, a mother and son torn apart during the conflict and separated for twenty years, are eager for the government to acknowledge their pain and suffering, but they hit a roadblock when the government denies responsibility in their legal case.

Things begin to look up when Otilia meets Jerry, a kind man and the son of Jewish parents who escaped the Holocaust. Grappling with his own upbringing and the psychological struggles his parents endured, Jerry is just the person to empathize with Otilia's situation. Together, Otilia, Jerry, and Salvador must support one another through the turbulent journey that is healing from historical trauma, and through it, they must find the courage to rebuild their lives and open themselves up to love and companionship.

Artfully weaving together different timelines and countries, Tobias examines the nuanced topic of grief a community endures after a collective tragedy. In this exploration of the culture of remembrance following displacement and loss, we discover what happens when our past calls us back to what we must do to achieve justice and reconciliation when we return. 

Who should be held responsible for public wrongs?

By 2008, it finally seems that the Peruvian government is ready to make amends to its citizens following the violent guerilla movement of the...


Advance Praise

“Eliana Tobias has managed in this moving and intelligent novel to show us two characters who, coming from very different worlds, at the end are telling the same story. The story of disarray, discrimination, and injustice. Showing us as well that hate is everywhere and the only antidote we have, is memory and love.”

—Carla Guelfenbein, internationally recognized author of eight novels including the award-winning novel In the Distance With You

“A spellbinding narrative that spans two continents Europe and Latin America at pivotal times of history. We are drawn to the life of its characters those that escaped the fractured world of the Holocaust and those in Latin America who struggled for truth and justice. Eliana Tobias has written a mesmerizing novel where history is braided with humanity. A passionate tale of resilience and fortitude.”

—Marjorie Agosin, Wellesley College, award-winning poet and novelist, author of The Butterfly Hill Series

“A story about reparations and redemption, When We Return weaves decades and continents, victims of the Holocaust and those reeling from terrorism in Peru, with the struggles of loss and injustice. Tobias explores with insight and compassion the familial bonds that sustain us, to ultimately reveal the healing that comes from family, love, and our shared humanity.”

—Claire Ibarra, author of Fragile Saints and Vortex of Our Affections

“In a novel with as many victims as there are survivors, Eliana depicts the phenomenal resilience of love that can bridge displaced families across borders and beyond lost time. A thoughtful writer, giving readers history and fiction in equal servings, her words are prime and elegant, adding richness to a beautiful retelling of an ugly past.” —Mari Jojie, author of A Hundred Silent Ways

“In this thought-provoking novel, the author traces generational history for those who are recipients of life-shattering events. Tobias seeks and provides answers to questions of the rights of recipients of outrageous historical behavior and to what forms such reparations may take. Personalizing such problems the novel gives a historical background from the Peruvian Shining Path guerilla movement to the European Holocaust and shows through keen characterization how the sharp light of history reflecting national crimes impact both the recipients and future generations. Can new relationships provide solace to those long ago destroyed? A must-read for philosophical and historical students and deep thinkers, everywhere. A highly original and different type of novel.”

—Suzanne Hillier, author of My Best Friend Was Angela Bennett and Sonia and Carl

“As a Jewish Latina familiar with South and North America, Tobias provides penetrating and perceptive observations on the all too human issues caused by displacement and generational trauma. Weaving a tapestry of trauma as experienced by a Peruvian victimized by the Shining Path guerillas and an American affected by his father's preoccupations as a Jewish Czech refugee, the author provides a unique window into life and political events. Equally compelling is the struggle of the affected individuals to confront memory and seek justice, each of which proves to be an enormous challenge. After all, the perpetrators rely on the erosion of memory and the avoidance of justice. This story may help inspire those who know that silence is not the answer.”

—Robert Krell CM, MD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, author of Sounds from Silence

“Eliana Tobias renders this powerful tale of a Peruvian family trying to come together after the murderous corruption of the Fujimori years unfolds with the inevitable grace of a tropical flower blooming.”

—Eduardo Santiago, award-winning author of Tomorrow They Will Kiss and Midnight Rumba

“Eliana Tobias has managed in this moving and intelligent novel to show us two characters who, coming from very different worlds, at the end are telling the same story. The story of disarray...


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Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781632995346
PRICE $16.95 (USD)

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Average rating from 12 members


Featured Reviews

"When We Return" by Eliana Tobias was a tender, reflective, refugee rebuilding story, knitting together a broken Peruvian family, with a Prague holocaust survivor descendent. Thoughtful regrowth, with a supportive cast, all recovering from traumatic experiences, political victims searching for a brighter future. Thank you NetGalley, The author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

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From the eye of a teacher, When We Return is probably going to be one of my favorite books to use with my students. Especially with students who are learning about the impacts of the politics and conflict of the 20th century, Tobias’ story, which travels between Europe, North and South America, tells the story of multiple characters, including Salvador and his mother Otilia, Gerry and his father, all of whom are impacted by the political and social situations in both Europea en Latin America. I can’t wait to use this one with my kids .

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As you might expect from the tagline ‘Who should be held responsible for public wrongs?’, this is a thought-provoking book.

When We Return is written in a distant third person omniscient, to the extent it often feels like a journalist’s account. That in turn helps the reader maintain some sort of distance from the real agonies of separation that afflict most of the protagonists. It also provides space for your own thoughts and opinions on the subject matter, allowing you to connect with your own experiences, however third hand.

The scenes shift between the experiences of Miles, a holocaust avoider, and his horrific journey out of Poland to the relative safety of Peru. He starts to rebuild his life from scratch, a reminder to anyone who reads about refugees that these people were ‘someone’ in their communities before everything went horribly wrong for them – through no fault of their own. Wrong place, wrong time. Otilia has fled Peru to the relative safety of the USA , a little later than Miles – who eventually does the same, to escape the totalitarian government and the rebels creating utter mayhem in the opposite direction. Although that is the enabling background, the root is really the greed of Otilia’s extended family and the failure of local officials to apply the law. It’s complicated, as these things usually are.

Complex is a better word for the answer to the author’s question. How far do you go back to right wrongs, to create reparation? I well remember a tour of Krakow’s Jewish quarter: my host (a professor at the University) explained the difficulties when someone comes back to say this apartment or those properties belonged to my family and were stolen by the Nazis. Those apartments are now lived in by local families, who have made their own payments for the right to live there. And a growing issue in the UK (in among many other self-inflicted problems) is what to do about reparation for our involvement in the slave trade, and all the other wealth gained by the first world – on the backs of the resources and hard work of what is seen as the third world.

In creating this novel, Eliana Tobias manages to untangle several valid and worthy stories, where people have had wrongs done to them, but where reparations may or may not be forthcoming. Where do you draw the line? What is fair? How can people come to terms with their treatment at the hands of those in power, however long ago.

This is an excellent novel, with a more or less satisfactory ending for all. But it will live with you long after you’ve finished.

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This is my first book to read by this author but I cannot wait to read more by them! This is such a uniquely written story that you will find yourself thinking about long after you finish it. Highly recommend!!

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