Chasing Echoes

by Dan Goldman, George Schall (illustrator)

A heartfelt tale about dysfunctional family dynamics, the ghosts of war and what brings us back together.

Malka, the black sheep of her family, learns that her relatives are making a decades-in-the-planning pilgrimage to their grandfather’s pre-Holocaust home in Poland...and she wasn’t invited. After guilt-tripping herself a ticket as the self-appointed “Keeper of the Family Archives,” it becomes clear that everyone’s brought more baggage than just their suitcases.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Adult, Historical Fiction, War

152 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2019

About the author

Dan Goldman is a writer, artist and activist working in graphic novels, animated TV, video games and digital media.

Raised in South Florida, Dan was a founding member of the ACT-I-VATE webcomics collective in Brooklyn, launching the careers of many creators (including his own). In 2006, SHOOTING WAR, his serialized dystopian satire of the War on Terror was nominated for an Eisner Award. Dan began contributing editorial illustrations regularly to New York Magazine's weekly "Intelligencer" column, eventually leaning harder into comics journalism with a long form collaboration with journalist Michael Crowley. Together they created 08: A GRAPHIC DIARY OF THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL, a 160-page nonfiction graphic novel documenting the chaotic 2008 Presidential election--written and drawn in real-time--which resulted in a hybrid of the visual languages of comics and magazine design that NPR Books called "defiantly and refreshingly unconventional."

After the election, Dan and his wife moved to São Paulo, Brazil where he began to produce his long-gestating passion project: a paranormal horror series called RED LIGHT PROPERTIES. Initially serialized online at Tor.com, the series saw print via IDW Books (US) and Plot! (Brazil) and is currently in development as a live-action TV series.

Returning to NYC, Dan produced Emmy-winning experiences for AMC Television and scripted two video games based on mega-hit series The Walking Dead. He then co-created the augmented-reality enabled feminist comic series PRIYA'S SHAKTI with collaborator Ram Devineni. With funding awarded by the Tribeca Film Institute, Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, this work allowed Dan to criss-cross the Indian subcontinent several times, working directly with the young people his stories were created to inspire. The series has since been downloaded nearly 1.5 million times in multiple languages worldwide. This experience in India inspired Dan to found the Kinjin Story Lab, a narrative studio dedicated to creating mindful entertainment across multiple media.

Dan's next book CHASING ECHOES, a semi-autobiographic graphic novel about American Jews traveling across rural Poland in search of family land seized by the Nazis, will be released in November 2019 from Humanoids Publishing.

He is based in Los Angeles with his partner Liliam and two endlessly-entertaining cats.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what I love about comics. You can pick up something totally on a whim without knowing anything about it and absolutely adore it. Chasing Echoes is the story of an extended (and dysfunctional) Jewish American family trying to track down their roots in Poland. Most of their relatives and history were wiped out by the Holocaust. Now they only have some stories from their grandfather and a few old pictures to go by. Malka is the black sheep of the family. Her life is in complete disarray and her cousins all know about it. When she finds out on Facebook that the rest of her family is headed to Poland, she guilts her uncle into letting her come as well. Which is a good thing since she's the unofficial family historian. Oftentimes hilarious, others poignant and gut-wrenching.

George Schall's simple clean linework captures the details of the Bloom family perfectly. He packs a lot of emotion into each character and there's a lot of them on this 11 person family odyssey.

Received a review copy from Humanoids and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Jewish American family bickers, squabbles and kvetches their way through Poland on a quest to find traces of their family roots from before the devastation of World War II and the Holocaust. Of particular interest is an old mill which, um, well, try not to look at the cover if you want to be in suspense about that.

Of course, the story is less about the quest and more about the relationships, at the center of which is the family black sheep, Malka. She's in quite the slump: jobless, broke, diagnosed with ADHD, facing eviction with no new home lined up, shamed for having had bed bugs, and being told by her son that he'd rather live in another state with her ex-husband. And on top of all this, she just found out via Facebook that she has been left out of the family pilgrimage.

The relationships in the book are almost too realistic, being muddled and focused on the little things that bug each other. The developments of the story are almost too realistic also, with the victories being as small and muted as the setbacks.

In the end, I never warmed up to sad sack Malka and the rest of the family irritated as much as they interested me. Also, the storytelling relied heavily on the reader studying the family tree provided at the front of the book, with at least one character going unnamed for much of the book and the actual familial relationships hardly explained in the story proper. And then there's that mill on the cover.

But the biggest problem I had with the book occurs on page 75. The family goes to an Elton John concert, and rather than working out some way to present the music graphically, the author actually inserts this text in the word balloons coming out of the singer's mouth: "Elton John's song lyrics are copyrighted by Universal Music Publishing -- and were not available for this graphic novel." This serves no purpose other than to display pettiness and to throw me out of the narrative. So here I am being petty in return: a third star was not available for this graphic novel.

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bloom family are Jewish and they travel to Poland from the US and Israel in order to find the flour mill their family owned before the Nazi's invaded Poland.

By the end of World War Two many of their family members had been murdered by the Nazis and so the family of Aunts, Uncles, siblings and cousins travel together to seek the past.

Malka is the black sheep of the family. Although she has a Phd she is a divorced single parent struggling to bring up her two children. Initially excluded from the trip by her aunt and uncle she is eventually sent a ticket from them because she is the family archivist and historian.

As the family travel across Poland trying to piece togther their past, they also come together as a family, reconising the way they hurt and exclude each other. Their pilgramage exposes both their strengths as a family and their weaknesses, but as they journey together they manager to discover stories from the family past which help them become a stronger family in the present.

The story is really powerful as it explores the Jewish holocaust and also other holocausts that have happened when people are scapegoated and hated. The novel is not just a story about the past, it is also a story for the present as intolerance and hatred is encouraged in our world today.

It is a very moving graphic novel with great artwork which conveys the story in a powerful way. Highly recommended.

Copy provided via Eidelweiss in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Cherlynn | cherreading · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this graphic novel, which follows a family who come together to retrace their roots and find out what happened to their ancestors during WWII.

This book covers topics and themes that I hold close to my heart, which was why I decided to pick it up. It's definitely an illuminating read, especially with regard to the history of Chełm.

Unfortunately, I disliked the characters because they were all assholes to one another despite being a family unit. I never warmed to Malka either and can even see why her family might want to exclude her. At the same time, one can certainly argue that this is a realistic portrayal of the ups and downs of family.

The book was also occasionally confusing with abrupt flashbacks and so many characters, some of whom hardly played a part in the story.

So while this was an eye-opening read, it was not the heartwarming or impactful book that I had been hoping for.

[Oneirosophos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Precious.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. It wasn't always pleasant, and I'm not even talking about the holocaust part of it. The family dynamics were agonizing at times. But WELL worth the read!

[Elia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess the moral of this story is: "family is the absolute WORST but they're still family so I guess you have to put up with their bullshit because what else are you going to do."
Malka is the designated family screw-up. Even though she is highly educated, she is a hot mess with no job, no place to live, and has just lost custody of her son because even he can't take her drama anymore. When she guilts her way on a family trip to rediscover their Jewish roots in Poland, she ends up discovering that some of them are not that bad after all.
Except they kind of are. And she kind of is too... none of these character are likeable, in fact most of them are pretty horrible, obnoxious, judgmental asshole people... but through all of that, there is genuine love for each other deep DEEP down.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't think I was going to like this honestly. But when I finished it I saw many parallels to my own life and it made me want to follow some of the same paths the family in this took to rediscover their family history.

Malka, a down on her luck single mother is the downtrodden black sheep of her family that is trying to rebuild and keep alive her family's history back to the holocaust. It doesn't help that her family thinks the worst of her and goes on a history seeking family trip to Poland without the family historian. She eventually joins them much to the chagrin of much of the family and along the way the things they discover I think bring them closer together and Malka and her family discover just how much she's worth.

[Emma]

Hoped to get inspo for Krakow trip in two weeks, failed XD - looking forward to KZ AII-B.

Super graciosa la manera en la que hablan de genocidios / holocaustos teniendo en cuenta lo que esta pasando right now en Palestina. Inserto dialogo:
- A: "It's our responsiblity to bear witness - and make sure the world remembers so it never happens again."
B: "Seriously? It's always the holocaust for somebody, somewhere. If you're get all "never again" - then do something about the genocides happening today."
A: "Today? Where?"
B: "Darfur, Yemen, Myanmar, The Yazidis in Iraq. Or do you only get outraged over JEWS?"

[Crow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very nice and quick read. I loved the family spirit, and the history. The history is something I know well, as is the country. I've been to about half the places mentioned, so it was definitely also an emotional book. I think to be enjoyed fully, you need to understand the history, and the suffering. I'm not Jewish myself, but it still hit close to home, having lost family in the concentration camps. Parts of this felt a little rushed, and i think the history wasn't shown as much as it could have been to make it a five star.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphic novels are not a new addition to the genre of Holocaust fiction. In fact, comic books in the 1950s-60s were among the first to speak about the Nazi war against the Jews. (For more information, see The Reporter’s review of “We Spoke Out: Comic Books and the Holocaust” at www.thereportergroup.org/Article.aspx....) However, graphic works related to the war and its aftermath continue to be published and the range of the material varies greatly. For example, two new works – “Chasing Echoes” by Dan Goldman and George Schall (Humaniods) and “In the Spider Web” adapted by Avraham Ohayon from a novel by Chaim Eliav (Feldheim Publishers) – take place in different time periods and focus on how the past affects families in distinct ways. “Chasing Echoes,” which takes place during contemporary times, describes itself as “a graphic novel about generations of survivors surviving each other” and focuses on familial relationships. “In the Spider Web,” whose events take place in the 1960s, calls itself “a suspenseful Families, Nazis and the aftermath of the Holocaust saga of Nazi intrigue and Divine providence across two continents and two generations” and is as much about political intrigue as it is about individuals’ reactions to history.
See the rest of my review at http://www.thereportergroup.org/Artic...

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was initially concerned about the swearing and Malka's lifestyle, but it soon became apparent that it was part of the story. I would not recommend it for younger children, I would say mature teens and up.
This book tells the story of a Jewish family who sets out to find their ancestor's home city and the flour mill he owned. Along the way, they discover many things about each other, Ashkenazi Jewish history, and the present state of antisemitism in Eastern Europe. I do not read too many graphic novels, but I thought it was odd that through out the trip nobody lent Malka clothes after her luggage went missing.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Chasing Echoes, a Jewish extended family explores their roots in Poland, kvetching and farting along the way. Much of the book is played for laughs, but there are also real emotional moments, such as when the family visits Auschwitz and when the outcast family member proves her worth. There's nothing extraordinarily stand-out about the book - it's just a good solid family tale. You might not like the Blooms very much, but they'll grow on you before the end.

[Aurora · Rating 2 out of 5]

It just felt very *messy*. And I really did not appreciate the anti-meds stance thrown in there near the end.

[Maurine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 ⭐
Une famille juive-américaine se fraye un chemin jusqu'en Pologne afin de comprendre son passé et retourner sur les traces de ses ancêtres ayant péris durant l'Holocauste.

Lorsque j'ai démarré cette lecture, je pensais réellement m'immiscer dans une quête d'origines. Mais c'est loin d'être le point central de ce roman graphique. En effet, on se concentre surtout sur le présent et sur les relations qu'entretiennent les membres de cette famille, particulièrement avec Malka qui est le bouc-émissaire. Cette femme, maman de trois enfants et hyperactive, est depuis peu sans emploi, célibataire et bientôt sans domicile. Elle est, pour toutes ces raisons, moquée tout au long de la bande dessinée. Une constante surenchère. Finalement, on lui accorde un peu d'attention car c'est elle qui possède les archives familiales.

Finalement, je n'ai pas trouvé un grand intérêt à ce roman graphique. Les seuls moments qui m'intéressaient, liés à l'Histoire, étaient trop peu nombreux et l'humour, les chamailleries des personnages m'ont laissée de marbre. Ils sont plus détestables les uns que les autres. L'esthétique générale ne m'a pas non plus convaincue : visages figés, manque de précision...

Cependant, tout n'est pas à jeter. Certains moments ont quand même réussis à me toucher, comme l'histoire de l'oiseau et du grand-père. Je regrette simplement qu'ils n'aient pas été plus nombreux.

Ce n'était clairement pas le roman graphique impactant et plein d'émotions auquel je m'attendais en le choisissant.

Scénario : 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑
Illustrations : 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

[Norman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tbh I feel a little guilty giving this one such a low score. Maybe it’s because I’ve been to Poland three times including to Auschwitz once. Krakow is one of my favorite places.

What really bugs me about this book is not so much the story but the general attitude about family dynamics. Everything feels forced, and that could be an issue with the narrative or maybe the characters aren’t entirely fleshed out enough. We get bits and pieces of each character, and we even have a protagonist of sorts, but to be honest, it’s all quite jumbled. We don’t have any good transitions from moment to moment, and though we’re supposed to be irked by the family, we only get irked by how we’re force-fed their relationship to one another and how supposedly strained it is.

[Alex A · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay story populated by a cast of unlikable characters. (The likeable ones are mostly those married into the family). I suppose the family drama feels accurate, but it's hard to get into or care about anyone.

And there's a large cast with whom you don't get much meaningful character depth by the end.
- One couple, who look like distaff versions of each other, are judgemental vegan assholes - nothing more.
- As well, 2/3rds through the story we learn Malka, the family screwup and nominal protagonist, has an unspecified PhD. Does that matter? Does that make her situation/behaviour more understandable/sympathetic? Not really.

As someone points out in another review, the covers give away the ending, kind of killing some narrative tension.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Malka learns that her large family is traveling to Poland to trace their family history, mostly vanished by the Holocaust. Malka invites herself much to the chagrin of her relatives, but as the keeper of the family history she might be the only one who can find the old mill. Do they find it? Don't look too closely to the front cover!
I appreciate a story with complicated family dynamics, but almost everyone here is completely unlikable. I liked the circle of history and unnerving parallels drawn between the past and present. But it felt a bit too tidy and was unnecessarily anti-medication. As a result it felt like it did a poor job at representing mental health in a responsible way.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. The concept - a dysfunctional family takes a trip to their homeland to learn more about their past - is good. Adding in the layer that the family is Jewish and was forced to flee Europe because of Nazis makes the plot compelling, too. But some of the family drama was over-the-top for me. The main character is a mess - but her family treats her terribly. In the end, they redeem themselves a bit, but still, the book was up and down for me.

This graphic novel contains adult content and concepts

[Codepoetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanting to learn more about their ancestors, a bickering Jewish American family travels to Poland. Although the story journeys back in time to Holocaust history, there is an important message for today. You see, this family is deeply concerned about modern anti-Semitism yet themselves discriminate against those who are different. This is a timeless message, and this book shares that message nearly perfectly.

[Cassie Fleurs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Corta y un poco desordenada. Un poco incómoda y con un final algo abrupto.

Aunque la premisa es buena, lo desagradable de todes les personajes, el encuentro forzado con los vecinos antiguos y lo enredoso de tener tantos personajes (solo para que sean irrelevantes) terminan limitando que tanto puedes disfrutar esa historia.

Me parece una genuina representación de las dinámicas familiares pero sin ninguna verdadera resolución fuera de tolerarles.

[Drucilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars. I liked this one quite a bit. There’s probably a lot of stuff I'm missing because I don’t know history and am not Jewish, but there is a lot more going on here than just those things. It’s really an interesting story about a lot of stuff, like wanting to have faith but can’t, worshiping the way you want to even if those you love don't understand, family always looking down on you for being a mess, etc. Goldman did a great job weaving all of those things together.

[untitled lullaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think had it been a real story it would have been five stars. I think it would have done better without fart jokes and the sex scenes. It was pretty realistic but most of the characters were pretty unlikable and I don’t see how it just magically worked out at the end for Malka. I didn’t mind the art style.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Malka the black sheep of the family reminded me so much of my younger self. I loved learning about the history that came along with this book and the family bond that they had. It was sad in moments, funny and moments, Sometimes boring and moments, but overall a really good read.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Family. Hate them, love them, go on an international trip exploring family roots and trauma, and bickering and differences ensue. Lighthearted dysfunction is comedic, yet heartwarming, it doesn't shy away from the ugliness and horrors of history including the Holocaust and anti-semitism.

[Burcu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of the family going on a trip to search for their roots. However, I would have liked to see the family relationships to be developed a little more. And did they all have to be so mean to the main character?

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

One family takes a trip to Poland to explore their ancestor's past. Talks about the Holocausts and Jewish hate. I really like the family dynamics in this book since it wasn't just about a "perfect" family. The distant niece who is the black sheep ends up saving the day.

[Julesy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story 4 stars
Artwork 4 stars
Color 4 stars
Lettering 5 stars

Overall rating: 4.25 stars

Theme/genre: Family, Jewish, Holocaust
Setting: Hungary, Poland

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel about different kinds of life journey's. No one in this family is the same after a summer trip to recapture something taken from them generations ago. Heartfelt and funny and very, very much worth the read.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

A family's trip to their father's/ grandfather's past brings them together in more ways than one.