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Your Roots Cast a Shadow: One Family's Search across History for Belonging
A narrative of cultural translation, identity, and belonging.
The thrill of a new place fades quickly for Caroline Topperman when she moves from Vancouver to Poland in 2013. As she delves into her family’s history, tracing their migration through pre-WWII Poland, Afghanistan, Soviet Russia and beyond, she discovers the layers of their complex experiences mirror some of what she felt as she adapted to life in a new country. How does one balance honoring both one’s origins and new surroundings?
Your Roots Cast a Shadow explores where personal history intersects with global events to shape a family’s identity. From the bustling markets of Baghdad to the quiet streets of Stockholm, Topperman navigates the murky waters of history as she toggles between present and past, investigating the relationship between migration, politics, identity, and home. Her family stories bring history into the present as her paternal grandmother becomes the first woman allowed to buy groceries at her local Afghan market while her husband is tasked with building the road from Kabul to Jalalabad. Topperman’s Jewish grandfather, a rising star in the Communist Party, flees Poland at the start of WWII one step ahead of the Nazis, returning later only to be rejected by the Party for his Jewish faith. Topperman herself struggles with new cultural expectations and reconciling with estranged relatives.
A study in social acceptance, Topperman contends with what one can learn about an adopted culture while trying to retain the familiar, the challenges of learning new languages and traditions even as she examines the responsibilities of migrants to their new culture, as well as that society’s responsibility to them.
The thrill of a new place fades quickly for Caroline Topperman when she moves from Vancouver to Poland in 2013. As she delves into her family’s history, tracing their migration through pre-WWII Poland, Afghanistan, Soviet Russia and beyond, she discovers the layers of their complex experiences mirror some of what she felt as she adapted to life in a new country. How does one balance honoring both one’s origins and new surroundings?
Your Roots Cast a Shadow explores where personal history intersects with global events to shape a family’s identity. From the bustling markets of Baghdad to the quiet streets of Stockholm, Topperman navigates the murky waters of history as she toggles between present and past, investigating the relationship between migration, politics, identity, and home. Her family stories bring history into the present as her paternal grandmother becomes the first woman allowed to buy groceries at her local Afghan market while her husband is tasked with building the road from Kabul to Jalalabad. Topperman’s Jewish grandfather, a rising star in the Communist Party, flees Poland at the start of WWII one step ahead of the Nazis, returning later only to be rejected by the Party for his Jewish faith. Topperman herself struggles with new cultural expectations and reconciling with estranged relatives.
A study in social acceptance, Topperman contends with what one can learn about an adopted culture while trying to retain the familiar, the challenges of learning new languages and traditions even as she examines the responsibilities of migrants to their new culture, as well as that society’s responsibility to them.
319 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 17, 2024
7 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Topperman
9 books9 followersCaroline is a writer and a blogger, who has worked in the fashion, fitness and beauty industries. From owning a Pilates studio which was frequented by professional athletes and Hollywood celebrities to working with international fashion brands, she has done it all. Caroline is a co-founder of Mountain Ash Press and KW Writers Alliance. Her book, Tell Me What You See, draws inspiration from her travels. Your Roots Cast a Shadow navigates migration, identity, and the meaning of home, offering a poignant reflection on belonging and cultural acceptance. Find more of her work on her website, www.carolinetopperman.com
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 19, 2025
Your Roots Cast a Shadow is an amazing book--part history, part memoir, and engaging from the first page to the last! Caroline's writing invites the reader in with vividly described scenes and friendly, often funny asides. As engrossed as I was, I barely registered how much I was learning about the postwar period in Eastern Europe.
Growing up in Toronto in a secular immigrant family, Caroline's roots were both ever-present and inscrutable. Her Polish-born parents taught her their language and regaled her with stories, but it took moving to Poland for Caroline to fully identify with her family’s past.
When she and her husband sell their home and move to Warsaw, Caroline finds herself living in a neighborhood where nearly every corner she passes is one where her ancestors walked. The experience moves her to take a deep dive into family documents and mementos to better understand her parents’ and grandparents’ histories in a historical and cultural context.
Tracing her family’s migration through pre-WWII Poland, Afghanistan, Soviet Russia, and beyond, Caroline explores how a family’s identity is shaped by global events both in real time and into the future. From the rigid, anti-Semitic milieu of the Polish Communist Party, to a road construction site in Kabul, to the bustling all-male markets of Baghdad, to the quiet streets of Stockholm.
A truly unique and wonderful read. Highly recommended!
Growing up in Toronto in a secular immigrant family, Caroline's roots were both ever-present and inscrutable. Her Polish-born parents taught her their language and regaled her with stories, but it took moving to Poland for Caroline to fully identify with her family’s past.
When she and her husband sell their home and move to Warsaw, Caroline finds herself living in a neighborhood where nearly every corner she passes is one where her ancestors walked. The experience moves her to take a deep dive into family documents and mementos to better understand her parents’ and grandparents’ histories in a historical and cultural context.
Tracing her family’s migration through pre-WWII Poland, Afghanistan, Soviet Russia, and beyond, Caroline explores how a family’s identity is shaped by global events both in real time and into the future. From the rigid, anti-Semitic milieu of the Polish Communist Party, to a road construction site in Kabul, to the bustling all-male markets of Baghdad, to the quiet streets of Stockholm.
A truly unique and wonderful read. Highly recommended!
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November 14, 2024I didn't expect to write a book about my experience in Poland. This started as a project about my family but people kept asking me about why I chose to leave Canada. The truth is that's its complicated. I wasn't happy and I needed to shake things up. I didn't leave permanently, I didn't give up my Canadian citizenship, but as we all know no country is perfect, and sometimes we all need a change.
Tripping over the cobblestones that my parents and grandparents once walked, I learned their histories from a new perspective, and it became apparent that their voices needed to be heard even though they were no longer there to speak. I knew I could tell their story and my own. Even though I was in my family’s country decades after they had left, I was able to find parallels that helped me reconnect to my long-lost roots. Because of this, I was also able to connect with my peers, and that is when I realized that it is our stories that connect us. Ultimately, I wrote this book to inspire readers to explore their roots and question how their upbringing impacts their view of the world. Having a deep understanding of our cultural backgrounds helps to develop a strong sense of self and the ability to understand someone else’s story and its impact on their worldview. I firmly believe that this shared awareness is the path to mutual cultural understanding.
Tripping over the cobblestones that my parents and grandparents once walked, I learned their histories from a new perspective, and it became apparent that their voices needed to be heard even though they were no longer there to speak. I knew I could tell their story and my own. Even though I was in my family’s country decades after they had left, I was able to find parallels that helped me reconnect to my long-lost roots. Because of this, I was also able to connect with my peers, and that is when I realized that it is our stories that connect us. Ultimately, I wrote this book to inspire readers to explore their roots and question how their upbringing impacts their view of the world. Having a deep understanding of our cultural backgrounds helps to develop a strong sense of self and the ability to understand someone else’s story and its impact on their worldview. I firmly believe that this shared awareness is the path to mutual cultural understanding.
March 29, 2025
I put off reading this book for many reasons and yet I don't think the impact it made this week while I read it or if I had read it as soon as I bought it, or even if I chose to wait even longer would change my response. Memoirs are a dime a dozen and yet memoirs that reverberate your soul are not. Your Roots Cast a Shadow echoed into not only the current day that we are living now as I write this, but also into all of the spaces of my own heart and mind.
As the first chapter states so well :
"Our history, our roots, is deeply planted. It's vital that we not let those roots be wrenched from the ground, let alone used to clobber others."
How we anchor in to who we are and how we leverage that 'indentity' causes impact, for the better or worse.
Caroline doesn't villianize, she sheds light.
And we all know that light has a way of casting shadows.
As the first chapter states so well :
"Our history, our roots, is deeply planted. It's vital that we not let those roots be wrenched from the ground, let alone used to clobber others."
How we anchor in to who we are and how we leverage that 'indentity' causes impact, for the better or worse.
Caroline doesn't villianize, she sheds light.
And we all know that light has a way of casting shadows.
August 20, 2025
5 out of 5🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
A must-read for those drawn to history, memoirs, complex identity search and maybe even longing for belonging.
Caroline Topperman succeeds in weaving her personal research into global happenings, while creating very vivid pictures of her grandparents dramatic escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into Soviet Russia, Bagdad and Stockholm to drawing parallels to her own migration to Warsaw in the mid 2010's. During my read I was constantly nodding my head or gasping in disbelief because the story suddenly took an unexpected turn. It also made me think about cultural adaptation, my own identity and transformation as well as my family's heritage.
A sentence that stuck with me after reading the book was: "Traditions is a word that people hide behind when they don't want change." Loads to think about in today's day and age.
A must-read for those drawn to history, memoirs, complex identity search and maybe even longing for belonging.
Caroline Topperman succeeds in weaving her personal research into global happenings, while creating very vivid pictures of her grandparents dramatic escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into Soviet Russia, Bagdad and Stockholm to drawing parallels to her own migration to Warsaw in the mid 2010's. During my read I was constantly nodding my head or gasping in disbelief because the story suddenly took an unexpected turn. It also made me think about cultural adaptation, my own identity and transformation as well as my family's heritage.
A sentence that stuck with me after reading the book was: "Traditions is a word that people hide behind when they don't want change." Loads to think about in today's day and age.
September 30, 2024
There were a lot of interesting things in this book, mixed together with things that I found frustrating or annoying. Topperman interleaves the story of her emigration from Canada to Poland with her Polish-born husband, and the story of her father's and mother's families who originated there.
For most of the book, I was thinking - WHY did you move to Poland? She clearly didn't go there with any kind of plan for establishing a life or making a living. What I came away with was guesswork - it was the EU country both she and her husband qualified for citizenship in, so it was a springboard for living in Europe more generally; and maybe the fact that her parents were born there might have had something to do with it. But I'm not sure. And being a US citizen in difficult times, it's Canada where I'd love to go, so someone abandoning Canada seemed almost like the ignorance of privilege.
Luckily, the rise of the extreme right in Poland coincided with a job offer her husband received back in Canada, so they got out before it might have become too dangerous or frightening to live there. This inside view of Polish politics in the 2013-2017 time frame was chilling, and it sounds like it will become increasingly dangerous to be Jewish or gay or liberal there.
But that isn't the book I expected to read, I thought I was going to be reading just the book about her family's history, which was quite interesting, and not a lot of chapters with jumbled up chronology about her food confusions in Warsaw or how shop staff behave or random thoughts about her childhood vacations in Europe. And I was REALLY annoyed by her offhand comment that most women "don't wear a full face of makeup. Where, I wonder, is that Polish pride? [in being stylish]" Um... I can't even. I'm not sure why wearing a glopped-on mask of products is a sign of pride.
So, if you already have a reason to be interested in the history and contemporary condition of Poland, this will be a book for you, and the lives of Topperman's parents and grandparents, as well as the demise of a lot of her mother's family in the WWII camps, are evocative and complex. But you'll have to put up with a lot of nattering about her poorly thought through move to Poland. I hate to give it a 3 because it grew on me as I went along, but I'd be hesitant to recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.
For most of the book, I was thinking - WHY did you move to Poland? She clearly didn't go there with any kind of plan for establishing a life or making a living. What I came away with was guesswork - it was the EU country both she and her husband qualified for citizenship in, so it was a springboard for living in Europe more generally; and maybe the fact that her parents were born there might have had something to do with it. But I'm not sure. And being a US citizen in difficult times, it's Canada where I'd love to go, so someone abandoning Canada seemed almost like the ignorance of privilege.
Luckily, the rise of the extreme right in Poland coincided with a job offer her husband received back in Canada, so they got out before it might have become too dangerous or frightening to live there. This inside view of Polish politics in the 2013-2017 time frame was chilling, and it sounds like it will become increasingly dangerous to be Jewish or gay or liberal there.
But that isn't the book I expected to read, I thought I was going to be reading just the book about her family's history, which was quite interesting, and not a lot of chapters with jumbled up chronology about her food confusions in Warsaw or how shop staff behave or random thoughts about her childhood vacations in Europe. And I was REALLY annoyed by her offhand comment that most women "don't wear a full face of makeup. Where, I wonder, is that Polish pride? [in being stylish]" Um... I can't even. I'm not sure why wearing a glopped-on mask of products is a sign of pride.
So, if you already have a reason to be interested in the history and contemporary condition of Poland, this will be a book for you, and the lives of Topperman's parents and grandparents, as well as the demise of a lot of her mother's family in the WWII camps, are evocative and complex. But you'll have to put up with a lot of nattering about her poorly thought through move to Poland. I hate to give it a 3 because it grew on me as I went along, but I'd be hesitant to recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.
March 26, 2025
In a world where borders shift, roads disappear, languages are lost, and family histories are erased, how does one locate and construct identity? This is one of the central questions at the heart of Topperman’s memoir.
Poignant, philosophical, humorous, and vulnerable, Topperman’s narrative views nomadic and migrant experience through the foggy lens of belonging. Your Roots Cast a Shadow is a reflective, and ultimately uplifting, memoir about a couple’s move from Canada to Poland in hopes of locating a shared sense of place, a feeling of coming ‘home.’
However, once Caroline and Pawel arrive, attempts to connect with family, folklore, and homeland result in a greater sense of dislocation. Navigating streets, everyday errands, finances, politics and relationships prove harrowing, and Caroline feels more displaced than ever. As the couple grapples with life ‘anew,’ Caroline questions their decision, fearing their move foolhardy. She wonders how borders — real and imagined, familial and cultural, political and social —scrape and shape the edges of personal identity. How living in thresholds, in liminal spaces, ambiguity, might be the only place where she will feel things familiar, where she might feel most at home.
Topperman’s Roots invites readers to consider grand narratives about home, family and belonging in a world where similarities and differences are often weaponized to 'stake and break' communities.
Poignant, philosophical, humorous, and vulnerable, Topperman’s narrative views nomadic and migrant experience through the foggy lens of belonging. Your Roots Cast a Shadow is a reflective, and ultimately uplifting, memoir about a couple’s move from Canada to Poland in hopes of locating a shared sense of place, a feeling of coming ‘home.’
However, once Caroline and Pawel arrive, attempts to connect with family, folklore, and homeland result in a greater sense of dislocation. Navigating streets, everyday errands, finances, politics and relationships prove harrowing, and Caroline feels more displaced than ever. As the couple grapples with life ‘anew,’ Caroline questions their decision, fearing their move foolhardy. She wonders how borders — real and imagined, familial and cultural, political and social —scrape and shape the edges of personal identity. How living in thresholds, in liminal spaces, ambiguity, might be the only place where she will feel things familiar, where she might feel most at home.
Topperman’s Roots invites readers to consider grand narratives about home, family and belonging in a world where similarities and differences are often weaponized to 'stake and break' communities.
May 31, 2025
Caroline Topperman just released her book, Your Roots Cast a Shadow, in December 2024. I got a copy on Saturday and just finished reading it today. It’s beautifully written (as are all things that Caroline writes), and it has made me re-think what I know about WWII, the Holocaust, and Poland’s history, too.
Her family’s story is layered and complex, and she’s drawn upon letters and photographs to help move through her research and writing. Sometimes, I felt like I was eavesdropping or reading a diary, or a cluster of letters. (I love that about history and memoir—how pieces and voices braid together, and how there are so many stories to listen to…)
Family stories are always fascinating to me, though, and this one is particularly thought provoking. I was thinking, again this week, of how much of a person’s family history can influence their identity in the present. We learn about our histories, and we have more questions and maybe fewer answers. (That’s how I feel about my family, anyway…)
And….now I want to visit Poland someday…
•
Her family’s story is layered and complex, and she’s drawn upon letters and photographs to help move through her research and writing. Sometimes, I felt like I was eavesdropping or reading a diary, or a cluster of letters. (I love that about history and memoir—how pieces and voices braid together, and how there are so many stories to listen to…)
Family stories are always fascinating to me, though, and this one is particularly thought provoking. I was thinking, again this week, of how much of a person’s family history can influence their identity in the present. We learn about our histories, and we have more questions and maybe fewer answers. (That’s how I feel about my family, anyway…)
And….now I want to visit Poland someday…
•
September 23, 2025
This book was such a moving, eye-opening read. 💙 Caroline Topperman takes us on a journey that blends family history, migration, and the search for belonging in a way that feels both deeply personal and universally relatable.
From Poland to Afghanistan, Baghdad to Stockholm, her family’s story is filled with resilience, struggle, and the constant push-and-pull between honoring one’s roots and adapting to new cultures. What really struck me was how honest and compassionate her reflections were—on identity, acceptance, and what it means to call a place “home.”
It’s the kind of book that makes you think about your own family history and the ways the past shapes who we are today. Beautifully told, heartfelt, and important.
I am so incredibly grateful you shared your history with me
From Poland to Afghanistan, Baghdad to Stockholm, her family’s story is filled with resilience, struggle, and the constant push-and-pull between honoring one’s roots and adapting to new cultures. What really struck me was how honest and compassionate her reflections were—on identity, acceptance, and what it means to call a place “home.”
It’s the kind of book that makes you think about your own family history and the ways the past shapes who we are today. Beautifully told, heartfelt, and important.
I am so incredibly grateful you shared your history with me
October 28, 2024
Caroline Topperman is a masterful guide, a writer who takes her reader down a series of wonderfully variegated pathways to disclose and explain where her family came from and how they got to where they are. The book is a whirlwind tour of the many destinations the family made as they journeyed toward living happily ever after and a fascinating introduction to the stalwart heroes and pioneering feminists Topperman is fortunate to have as her forebears. Your Roots Cast a Shadow is a deep dive into finding our roots, told with humor, wisdom, and understandable pride.
November 2, 2024
This book was interesting both for the “present day” tale of the author and her husband moving to Poland, and also for the detailed look at their ancestors’ lives in post WW2 Europe. Families are messy and she doesn’t shy away from some of the unpleasant members of her family.
I liked the book more than I thought I would. It provided a lot of insight into living in Poland in recent times.
I liked the book more than I thought I would. It provided a lot of insight into living in Poland in recent times.
April 19, 2025
This is an amazing book that I found difficult to put down once I started reading. There was so much history that I was unaware of, that was fascinating to learn about, through one family’s personal stories. With so many parallels to the struggles in today’s current political and social climates, this is a must-read!
April 24, 2025
Caroline Topperman's engaging family story is both a personal exploration of understanding oneself and one's roots. Spanning decades and countries, and touching on major historical events of the twenthieth century, Topperman deftly weaves personal anecdotes with issues touching all of us. Your Roots Cast a Shadow is a must-read.
April 24, 2025
A beautifully written and well researched story about family and the ways we feel connected to them even after they’re gone. Reading personal experiences about major historical events helps to connect us to those events, and Caroline’s family has a wealth of experiences! Caroline does a wonderful job of telling not just the happy family memories, but also the difficult stories that can be hard to reconcile with the loving family members we thought we knew.
This book is also a love story to travel and the ways it can change and shape us, and remind us to look beyond our own often narrow worldview.
This book is also a love story to travel and the ways it can change and shape us, and remind us to look beyond our own often narrow worldview.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews