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Tiny Lights for Travellers
Why couldn't I occupy the world as those model-looking women did, with their flowing hair, pulling their tiny bright suitcases as if to say, I just arrived from elsewhere, and I already belong here, and this sidewalk belongs to me? When her marriage suddenly ends, and a diary documenting her beloved grandfather's escape from Nazi-occupied Netherlands in the summer of 1942 is discovered, Naomi K. Lewis decides to retrace his journey to learn about her family history. Despite suffering from extreme disorientation and a lifetime of anxiety, she travels alone for the first time. Moving from Amsterdam to Lyon--relying on the marvels of GPS--she discovers family secrets and her own narrative as a second-generation Jewish Canadian. With vulnerability, humour, and wisdom, Lewis's memoir asks tough questions about her identity as a secular Jew, the accuracy of family stories, and the impact of the Holocaust on subsequent generations. How do immigrants weave their sense of identity into their chosen countries? Must we be able to locate ourselves within family and cultural geography to belong?
296 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2019
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146 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 30, 2022
Tiny Lights for Travellers by Naomi K. Lewis
Narrated by author
Naomi lets us into her journey and the parts of her grandfather's journey that she can read and remember from things he said or didn't say. Naomi suffers from topographical disorientation and extreme anxiety but after her divorce she decides to retrace her grandfather's escape from Nazi occupied Netherlands in the summer of 1942. Naomi's topographical disorientation makes such a journey, alone, a major feat. Anxiety would make it a major feat. Mixed in with the past of Naomi's grandfather is Naomi's identity as a secular Jew. This is where I had such a disconnect from the story and what that part of the story entails. I don't understand the arguments that are related concerning ethnic Jews, religious Jew, who belongs, who doesn't, who is right and who is wrong. I urge readers of this review to read other reviews because other reviewers were able to grasp this story the way its meant to be grasped and understood.
Thank you to University of Alberta Press and NetGalley for this ARC.
Narrated by author
Naomi lets us into her journey and the parts of her grandfather's journey that she can read and remember from things he said or didn't say. Naomi suffers from topographical disorientation and extreme anxiety but after her divorce she decides to retrace her grandfather's escape from Nazi occupied Netherlands in the summer of 1942. Naomi's topographical disorientation makes such a journey, alone, a major feat. Anxiety would make it a major feat. Mixed in with the past of Naomi's grandfather is Naomi's identity as a secular Jew. This is where I had such a disconnect from the story and what that part of the story entails. I don't understand the arguments that are related concerning ethnic Jews, religious Jew, who belongs, who doesn't, who is right and who is wrong. I urge readers of this review to read other reviews because other reviewers were able to grasp this story the way its meant to be grasped and understood.
Thank you to University of Alberta Press and NetGalley for this ARC.
March 28, 2022
What a great book! For Naomi to write about all her emotions, from good times and bad was very brave. I thoroughly enjoyed how she went back and forth with her journey following the same route as her Opa did while escaping from the Hitler regime and incorporating his thoughts and emotions was sensational.
My second read and if this was my first, don't think I would have given it 5 stars, most likely 3 stars. i really enjoyed the author placing parts of her Opa's own words into the book, but thought there was no much of her personal life from her youth in the states, time in Ottawa in the book and that seemed to distract from her goal of tracing her Opa's escape from the Nazi regime.
My second read and if this was my first, don't think I would have given it 5 stars, most likely 3 stars. i really enjoyed the author placing parts of her Opa's own words into the book, but thought there was no much of her personal life from her youth in the states, time in Ottawa in the book and that seemed to distract from her goal of tracing her Opa's escape from the Nazi regime.
March 3, 2020
3.8⭐ Rounded up
In the summer of 2015 and despite hating travel, Naomi K Lewis bravely loaded herself and her neuroses (which must have required their own seat) onto an airplane headed for Europe. Her plan was to retrace, 73 years to the day her grandfather's (her Opa's) escape from the Nazis through Holland, Belgium and into Vichy France. Her guide was the diary her grandfather had kept secret and which was only unearthed long after his death. Lewis was also seeking distraction from her painful divorce (and the material for a book, she candidly admits).
While the journey is the hook, the book is about Lewis' struggle with anxiety; with her identity (Jewish or not?); with her marriage, with her family/friends and with adulthood. It's about Naomi K Lewis, in fact. That's good and bad. Lewis is a talented writer, with plenty to say. However the book suffers, in my opinion, because everything and everyone in it is viewed only through the mirror of Lewis' obsessive self reflection. We don't get to really know her grandfather and grandmother, the central figures in the book, except through their highly subjective interactions with Lewis.
When she's following her grandfathers journey, we learn as much about what she eats at each stop as about what her grandfather faced (except for the direct excerpts from his 30 page diary). At the town where her Opa finally crossed into unoccupied France and relative safety Lewis finds a pub by the river called 'Le Passeur" meaning the guide or the people smuggler. Her grandfather writes about how les passeurs guided him and about 80 others across the river. But the pub is closed. Does Lewis go back later or ask anyone about the history of that time? No, as far as we know from the book.
It can be argued the book is only intended as travelogue or as Lewis' personal memoirs, and that's fair enough. I still feel let down, because I was drawn into the escape and wanted to know as much about it as possible. Instead we hear how at the river, Lewis throws her wedding ring into the water. Both herself and her grandfather became free at the same place, ya get it?
Don't get me wrong, I really like the book and I like Lewis, even if she is crazy as a bed bug (throughout the book she's obsessed with bed bugs, checking the reviews and mattresses of every hotel she stays at). But the book could have used tighter editing and less settling of accounts, such as with her divorce lawyer, with "her huge breasts and her huge fees;" with the chauvinistic rabbi who attacked her for an article she wrote about her nose job at 16 (I actually cheered Lewis on for that one) and with her hapless ex-husband "Lev," among others.
Bottom line: it's one of those books that stay with you, whether you want them to or not. I'm looking for a hard copy edition so that that I can return to it at leisure and lend it out. I enthusiastically recommend others do the same
In the summer of 2015 and despite hating travel, Naomi K Lewis bravely loaded herself and her neuroses (which must have required their own seat) onto an airplane headed for Europe. Her plan was to retrace, 73 years to the day her grandfather's (her Opa's) escape from the Nazis through Holland, Belgium and into Vichy France. Her guide was the diary her grandfather had kept secret and which was only unearthed long after his death. Lewis was also seeking distraction from her painful divorce (and the material for a book, she candidly admits).
While the journey is the hook, the book is about Lewis' struggle with anxiety; with her identity (Jewish or not?); with her marriage, with her family/friends and with adulthood. It's about Naomi K Lewis, in fact. That's good and bad. Lewis is a talented writer, with plenty to say. However the book suffers, in my opinion, because everything and everyone in it is viewed only through the mirror of Lewis' obsessive self reflection. We don't get to really know her grandfather and grandmother, the central figures in the book, except through their highly subjective interactions with Lewis.
When she's following her grandfathers journey, we learn as much about what she eats at each stop as about what her grandfather faced (except for the direct excerpts from his 30 page diary). At the town where her Opa finally crossed into unoccupied France and relative safety Lewis finds a pub by the river called 'Le Passeur" meaning the guide or the people smuggler. Her grandfather writes about how les passeurs guided him and about 80 others across the river. But the pub is closed. Does Lewis go back later or ask anyone about the history of that time? No, as far as we know from the book.
It can be argued the book is only intended as travelogue or as Lewis' personal memoirs, and that's fair enough. I still feel let down, because I was drawn into the escape and wanted to know as much about it as possible. Instead we hear how at the river, Lewis throws her wedding ring into the water. Both herself and her grandfather became free at the same place, ya get it?
Don't get me wrong, I really like the book and I like Lewis, even if she is crazy as a bed bug (throughout the book she's obsessed with bed bugs, checking the reviews and mattresses of every hotel she stays at). But the book could have used tighter editing and less settling of accounts, such as with her divorce lawyer, with "her huge breasts and her huge fees;" with the chauvinistic rabbi who attacked her for an article she wrote about her nose job at 16 (I actually cheered Lewis on for that one) and with her hapless ex-husband "Lev," among others.
Bottom line: it's one of those books that stay with you, whether you want them to or not. I'm looking for a hard copy edition so that that I can return to it at leisure and lend it out. I enthusiastically recommend others do the same
April 12, 2020
...each of us should think of our life as a story, and ... we should make that story beautiful, a work of art. p229
NKL almost pulls this off. She maintains the delicate balance between whining and bragging and is able to maintain a polite, occasionally hilarious relationship with her neurosis. Her self-awareness takes no prisoners and her courage in facing up to uneasy truth is hard to deny.
After all, we create narratives of our lives, create meaning that way, create ourselves and sometimes elements-scenes or chapters or even whole characters-have to go, because they mess with the story's flow, or contradict a major theme, and can't be tweaked enough to fit. Sometimes an anomalous episode stands out awkwardly, a tangent. Much worse, it can threaten to take over, to point all arrows to itself-here I am, the secret, the answer, the cause-when the story is just not about that, not at all. p229
I didn't have any good secrets yet, but I planned to get some as soon as I could. p165
NKL, it turns out, is not that good at keeping secrets. Seeking distraction from the ramifications of the end of an 8 year marriage, having some time off before starting a residency at the university of New Brunswick, when she finds an old journal in her grandparents effects, she hopes that, by following his trail, she will be able to resolve some of her questions about her identity. Most of all, after her failed experiment in living the life of a Jewish housewife, she wants to know what it is to be an authentic Jew and if she is one, in spite of her secular upbringing and her own uncertainties.
This travelogue is more of a self-confessional as she follows the route her grandfather took in making his escape from the Nazi occupied Netherlands near the beginning of the war. She wasn't the only one wishing that he was less reticent with personal information. At the end of her pilgrimage, at the spot where her young grandfather made the perilous river crossing to freedom, she has had at least some epiphany about their connected times.
I was making my own story, and I'd come here not for him, but for myself, after all. p277
Because I did enjoy her irreverent approach to reverence, her willingness to wrestle with her perceived limitations, her lively curiosity and the way she attempts to shed some light on some thorny and awkward questions, I've bumped this up to a 4 on GR. It would be a 4/7 in my system.
NKL almost pulls this off. She maintains the delicate balance between whining and bragging and is able to maintain a polite, occasionally hilarious relationship with her neurosis. Her self-awareness takes no prisoners and her courage in facing up to uneasy truth is hard to deny.
After all, we create narratives of our lives, create meaning that way, create ourselves and sometimes elements-scenes or chapters or even whole characters-have to go, because they mess with the story's flow, or contradict a major theme, and can't be tweaked enough to fit. Sometimes an anomalous episode stands out awkwardly, a tangent. Much worse, it can threaten to take over, to point all arrows to itself-here I am, the secret, the answer, the cause-when the story is just not about that, not at all. p229
I didn't have any good secrets yet, but I planned to get some as soon as I could. p165
NKL, it turns out, is not that good at keeping secrets. Seeking distraction from the ramifications of the end of an 8 year marriage, having some time off before starting a residency at the university of New Brunswick, when she finds an old journal in her grandparents effects, she hopes that, by following his trail, she will be able to resolve some of her questions about her identity. Most of all, after her failed experiment in living the life of a Jewish housewife, she wants to know what it is to be an authentic Jew and if she is one, in spite of her secular upbringing and her own uncertainties.
This travelogue is more of a self-confessional as she follows the route her grandfather took in making his escape from the Nazi occupied Netherlands near the beginning of the war. She wasn't the only one wishing that he was less reticent with personal information. At the end of her pilgrimage, at the spot where her young grandfather made the perilous river crossing to freedom, she has had at least some epiphany about their connected times.
I was making my own story, and I'd come here not for him, but for myself, after all. p277
Because I did enjoy her irreverent approach to reverence, her willingness to wrestle with her perceived limitations, her lively curiosity and the way she attempts to shed some light on some thorny and awkward questions, I've bumped this up to a 4 on GR. It would be a 4/7 in my system.
July 26, 2019
I devoured this book in a day in a half. Tiny Lights was a thoroughly engaging story that unravels messy, complicated topics with bracing honesty, clarity and humour. I love how it's a travel memoir that doesn't gloss over the unpleasantness and discomfort that often comes with the territory. A glamorous romp through Europe, this is not! And it's about so much more: intergenerational trauma; the fallibility of memory; finding your own way in the world with no innate compass (literally in some cases); the quest to understand yourself and be understood by others. The subject matter is weighty to be sure, but the storytelling is so tight and masterful that the pages just fly by.
Unlike Lewis, I was raised in the Conservative Jewish tradition (bat mitzvah, Hebrew school, summer camp...the whole magilah!) Yet I could still very much relate to her questions around what it means to be a Jew and how Jewish is Jewish enough. No matter how big or small a role the religion and culture plays in our lives, there's no escaping the weight of that identity.
Unlike Lewis, I was raised in the Conservative Jewish tradition (bat mitzvah, Hebrew school, summer camp...the whole magilah!) Yet I could still very much relate to her questions around what it means to be a Jew and how Jewish is Jewish enough. No matter how big or small a role the religion and culture plays in our lives, there's no escaping the weight of that identity.
January 7, 2020
I realize that the word ‘brave’ is overused when describing memoirs, but simply writing an honest account of one’s life IS an act of bravery these day when a huge chunk of the population are hesitant to post a single unflattering picture of themselves on the internet. No one wants to read a book that rehashes how wonderful one’s life is with no bumps along the way, so the most successful and interesting memoirs are ones that honestly depict a life, the challenges and triumphs together. Tiny Lights for Travellers by Naomi K. Lewis is what we would call a successful memoir for two reasons; the first being it was shortlisted for the Governor General literary award for non-fiction, but more importantly, it was a genuine treat to read.
Full disclosure, I know the author personally, and I’ve reviewed another book of hers on this site. Although we don’t see each other on a regular basis, we orbit around one another in the wonderfully tight-knit community that is Alberta books. I also recently discovered we live in the same neighborhood, which I was delighted to learn, because I love the idea of running into people I know on the street. As followers of this blog already know, I am always nervous to read a book by a friend, because what if I don’t like it? I can once again breath a sigh of relief, because I not only enjoyed this book, I loved it.
Lewis writes primarily about two different things; her life, and her grandfather’s escape from the Nazi-occupied Netherlands in 1942. The ‘trigger’ of the story is Lewis’s divorce, which prompts her to push herself into an uncomfortable journey retracing her Opa’s steps from decades ago. While she recounts her trip making the same stops he did (albeit under very different circumstances), the narrative moves back and forth through time. Each chapter includes various jumps into the past and future: settling on a memory Lewis has of her childhood, then pushing forward to the present-day where she’s struggling to find a new suitcase while on her trip, then falling back again to the last few conversations she had with her husband about their failing marriage. Interspersed with Lewis’s words and recollections are her Opa’s actual words, taken from the journal she discovered among his things years after he died.
Despite the fact that major, dramatic life events are dealt with, Lewis resists the easy ‘eat, pray, love’ trope and does not rely on a clear-cut trajectory of self-discovery as she moves along in her journey. She doesn’t have any huge epiphany while navigating the crowded streets of Paris, and she doesn’t gain any life-altering perspectives while ruminating on her failed marriage. Instead, she simply reflects on her past, her childhood, her conflicted feelings about how “Jewish” she considers herself and how others view her, basically how all her experiences come together to form the person she is today. She attempts to do the same for her Opa, who was deceased at the time of her journey and her writing, so there is little to no closure for her, or the reader.
All of the above points may seem like criticisms, but in my mind, it is quite the opposite. Lewis has taken the harder road here, not tying things up neatly for herself or us, which is of course the most realistic way to portray a life, especially her own. Honest is another word I would use to describe this book to potential readers. Lewis describes a lovely afternoon of sitting by a river and eating a delicious sandwich in Amsterdam, but then sees a stream of liquid coming out beside her feet, quickly realizing she has leaned up against a cleverly disguised public urinal. She’s embarrassed about this, but states that she will leave out this unfortunate realization as she describes her day to her boyfriend in an email later. Who among us has NOT left out this minor, gross details to better portray our experiences? It’s such a typical, minor thing to do, but the fact that Lewis makes a fact of mentioning it demonstrates how important honesty in her writing is, and I truly appreciate that as a reader.
My favourite parts of this book center around Lewis’s struggles with her Jewish heritage. Even within her family there are arguments on whether Jews are a race or religion, and when she marries into a devout Jewish family, these questions are brought to the forefront of her life, forcing her to interrogate her internal motivations to become a ‘real’ Jew, even going so far as to question why her parents allowed her to get a nose job as a teenager. Once again, these things are complicated, the issues she deals with are not all solved, and many are made even more confusing the longer she dwells on them. Despite this, I felt as though this memoir gave us a complete and whole picture of Lewis as a human, person and soul. By laying bare what troubles her most we relate to her struggles, ultimately bolstered by the thought that we are all searching for answers and meaning, no matter who you are.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Or follow me on twitter:
https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
Full disclosure, I know the author personally, and I’ve reviewed another book of hers on this site. Although we don’t see each other on a regular basis, we orbit around one another in the wonderfully tight-knit community that is Alberta books. I also recently discovered we live in the same neighborhood, which I was delighted to learn, because I love the idea of running into people I know on the street. As followers of this blog already know, I am always nervous to read a book by a friend, because what if I don’t like it? I can once again breath a sigh of relief, because I not only enjoyed this book, I loved it.
Lewis writes primarily about two different things; her life, and her grandfather’s escape from the Nazi-occupied Netherlands in 1942. The ‘trigger’ of the story is Lewis’s divorce, which prompts her to push herself into an uncomfortable journey retracing her Opa’s steps from decades ago. While she recounts her trip making the same stops he did (albeit under very different circumstances), the narrative moves back and forth through time. Each chapter includes various jumps into the past and future: settling on a memory Lewis has of her childhood, then pushing forward to the present-day where she’s struggling to find a new suitcase while on her trip, then falling back again to the last few conversations she had with her husband about their failing marriage. Interspersed with Lewis’s words and recollections are her Opa’s actual words, taken from the journal she discovered among his things years after he died.
Despite the fact that major, dramatic life events are dealt with, Lewis resists the easy ‘eat, pray, love’ trope and does not rely on a clear-cut trajectory of self-discovery as she moves along in her journey. She doesn’t have any huge epiphany while navigating the crowded streets of Paris, and she doesn’t gain any life-altering perspectives while ruminating on her failed marriage. Instead, she simply reflects on her past, her childhood, her conflicted feelings about how “Jewish” she considers herself and how others view her, basically how all her experiences come together to form the person she is today. She attempts to do the same for her Opa, who was deceased at the time of her journey and her writing, so there is little to no closure for her, or the reader.
All of the above points may seem like criticisms, but in my mind, it is quite the opposite. Lewis has taken the harder road here, not tying things up neatly for herself or us, which is of course the most realistic way to portray a life, especially her own. Honest is another word I would use to describe this book to potential readers. Lewis describes a lovely afternoon of sitting by a river and eating a delicious sandwich in Amsterdam, but then sees a stream of liquid coming out beside her feet, quickly realizing she has leaned up against a cleverly disguised public urinal. She’s embarrassed about this, but states that she will leave out this unfortunate realization as she describes her day to her boyfriend in an email later. Who among us has NOT left out this minor, gross details to better portray our experiences? It’s such a typical, minor thing to do, but the fact that Lewis makes a fact of mentioning it demonstrates how important honesty in her writing is, and I truly appreciate that as a reader.
My favourite parts of this book center around Lewis’s struggles with her Jewish heritage. Even within her family there are arguments on whether Jews are a race or religion, and when she marries into a devout Jewish family, these questions are brought to the forefront of her life, forcing her to interrogate her internal motivations to become a ‘real’ Jew, even going so far as to question why her parents allowed her to get a nose job as a teenager. Once again, these things are complicated, the issues she deals with are not all solved, and many are made even more confusing the longer she dwells on them. Despite this, I felt as though this memoir gave us a complete and whole picture of Lewis as a human, person and soul. By laying bare what troubles her most we relate to her struggles, ultimately bolstered by the thought that we are all searching for answers and meaning, no matter who you are.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Or follow me on twitter:
https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
June 23, 2019
Tiny Lights for Travellers is a moving, original account of one woman's (physical and spiritual) journey to connect with her genetic roots. I found this book to be almost technically perfect, from its structure to its pacing and Naomi's writing to be warm, genuine and honest. I had no idea identifying as Jewish was so fraught with struggle and rules. She seamlessly wove in different perspectives on the issue through her family and friends eyes, giving me a lot to think about. I can relate to not knowing who you are and not fitting in, having never been anchored to "a family" until well into adulthood myself. Only in recent years I have learned that home is what you create for yourself and I truly hope Jos lived his life the best way he knew how and that Naomi can continue to do the same.
September 22, 2019
Naomi Lewis retraces her grandfather's escape from the Nazis in a novel that explores the grief of divorce, the loss of oneself in a relationship and then the shock of starting over with hope and optimism. For someone who gets lost easily due to an actual physical condition, Naomi seems able to find the humour in any situation and reclaim her non-Jewish identity in spite of the circumstances. As a shaky traveller and a divorcee myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel.
June 21, 2019
In her soft-footed and clear-eyed journey towards origins, Naomi Lewis writes with care and honesty about troubling matters. She leaves the weightiest questions in our hands. This engaging and thought-provoking memoir will be a heartening read for anyone who has lost love, sought a spiritual path, or tried to reconcile their parents' painful past with their present-day life.
September 12, 2019
I gobbled this book up and found it totally compelling. I loved the style and poignancy with which Lewis goes about finding complex answers to the tough questions she asks herself. This story is full of sharp insights about writing, identity and spirituality. Tiny Lights for Travellers is a master class in creative non fiction and the possibilities of memoir.
November 30, 2019
I enjoyed reading about Naomi Lewis' thoughts and feelings. Her account of the turmoil within her family and herself over Jewish identity was educational. Her honesty about her anxieties and body was real but a bit grating. It is one of the aspects of memoir that bothers me in general. The joining of her grandfather's story with her own is beautiful.
January 7, 2020
The re-read begins this weekend. Fortunate to be hosting a talk with the author in March!
January 10, 2026
As a family historian, Tiny Lights for Travelers truly engaged my sense of adventure. The story gripped my interest throughout, illuminating the personal journey of the author as she explored both her grandfather’s haunting WW2 experience and her own relationships, past and present. The story follows the reluctant and spatially challenged traveler as she follows the dimly lit track provided by an enigmatic diary from WW2. Risks and uncertainties experienced by the stoic and cautious grandfather provide compelling narrative as he attempts to narrowly escape Nazi Occupied Europe and the abyss of the ever-present holocaust. The author juxtaposes her experiences in the moment while illuminating the hero’s path using candlelight tributes. Cantillated stops provide impromptu backward glances and oblique glimpses of her fragmented Judaism in passing. The reader is carried along as the author attempts to vanquish personal pain through the experience of vulnerability, gravity, and joy all while undertaking a quest to find personal comfort. Layered memories over the course of the memoir are entangled and steeped like curled leaves at the bottom of an old teacup, passed along through generations. Reflections in the pearl like surface resemble the endearing and inescapable, ‘tiny’ lights: Memories like beads of light beneath a glassy surface, cling to the present while offering crucial guideposts from the past.
March 8, 2021
Naomi K Lewis leans into the reader and lets us into her inner landscape, even the most intimate and vulnerable places, where strangers aren't usually admitted. By the time I finished the book, I felt like I knew her, like we'd just sat down together over a long and leisurely meal while she confided the story of her failed marriage, her solo trip to Europe, her family history and, perhaps most importantly, her struggle to reconcile herself to her Jewish identity.
By turns elegiac and philosophical, celebrational and confessional, this compelling memoir moves back and forth from the mid-seventies to contemporary times. What sets it apart is the way it weaves several storylines into a seamless whole: the portrait of a life.
By turns elegiac and philosophical, celebrational and confessional, this compelling memoir moves back and forth from the mid-seventies to contemporary times. What sets it apart is the way it weaves several storylines into a seamless whole: the portrait of a life.
July 17, 2022
2.5 stars
I found this audiobook hard to get through. I requested it thinking that it would be a story about the author retracing her grandfather’s life yet it’s mainly about Naomi herself, her questioning her ethnicity, her anxiety, her nose job (1 hour and 15 minute chapter talking about her nose surgery)……
The narration is a high pitched voice with no distinction between characters so it was hard to tell which character was speaking.
According to other reviews it is a 4-5 star read so that may be the better option rather than the audio.
My thanks to #NetGalley and #UniversityofAlbertaPress for this ARC. This opinion is my own.
I found this audiobook hard to get through. I requested it thinking that it would be a story about the author retracing her grandfather’s life yet it’s mainly about Naomi herself, her questioning her ethnicity, her anxiety, her nose job (1 hour and 15 minute chapter talking about her nose surgery)……
The narration is a high pitched voice with no distinction between characters so it was hard to tell which character was speaking.
According to other reviews it is a 4-5 star read so that may be the better option rather than the audio.
My thanks to #NetGalley and #UniversityofAlbertaPress for this ARC. This opinion is my own.
August 19, 2022
Thanks to NetGalley and University of Alberta Press for the audiobook ARC!
Tiny Lights for Travelers is a really interesting concept. The author writes about following the same route her Jewish grandfather did in his attempt to escape the push of the Nazis across Europe during WWII. And in doing so, she confronts her own failed marriage, her religious questing (and questioning), and the death of a close friend, among other things. Quite an interesting read, and very nicely narrated by the author.
Tiny Lights for Travelers is a really interesting concept. The author writes about following the same route her Jewish grandfather did in his attempt to escape the push of the Nazis across Europe during WWII. And in doing so, she confronts her own failed marriage, her religious questing (and questioning), and the death of a close friend, among other things. Quite an interesting read, and very nicely narrated by the author.
November 25, 2019
I’m really upset that this one is on the “will not finish” shelf. The cocker is gorgeous and the premise was really intriguing. Sadly, I find it lacking in connectivity between the source material and the authors opportunity to travel the route her grandfather did. I found the amount I read to be whiney, picky and repetitive.
September 22, 2021
Adored this from start to finish.
This is the real-life story of a Canadian woman and her relationship with her ethnicity/religion (just what DOES it mean to be a Jew? what if you don't actually believe in a god? what if you don't know the words? what if you just have a big nose???) as she retraces her grandfather's war-time journey through occupied Europe to safety, after discovering his secret diary hidden in a box after his death.
Had a bit of a cry towards the end, although weirdly not at anything you'd expect me to be crying at in a memoir about the holocaust. I don't often read non-fiction but I'm so glad the pretty purple cover art drew me in because this is genuinely fantastic.
This is the real-life story of a Canadian woman and her relationship with her ethnicity/religion (just what DOES it mean to be a Jew? what if you don't actually believe in a god? what if you don't know the words? what if you just have a big nose???) as she retraces her grandfather's war-time journey through occupied Europe to safety, after discovering his secret diary hidden in a box after his death.
Had a bit of a cry towards the end, although weirdly not at anything you'd expect me to be crying at in a memoir about the holocaust. I don't often read non-fiction but I'm so glad the pretty purple cover art drew me in because this is genuinely fantastic.
May 21, 2021
Intriguing. This had me thinking and asking questions as I explored faith, identity, and community along with the author.
January 28, 2026
Naomi is a brilliant literary writer and I love her style.
July 20, 2022
A fantastic book, with many layers. From reluctant travelogue to spiritual exploration to family history... there is a lot going on.
But it all works, and interconnects. I attended a seminar with Lewis where she talked about the challenges of the book but overall, I think it came together very well.
At any rate, this is a complicated and compelling personal history; one well worth diving into.
But it all works, and interconnects. I attended a seminar with Lewis where she talked about the challenges of the book but overall, I think it came together very well.
At any rate, this is a complicated and compelling personal history; one well worth diving into.
January 10, 2021
Beautifully written complex memoir with multiple strands woven together. It was nominated for a GG award.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews