Critical Praise

"Kurlansky’s collection of case histories unfolds like a novel."

——The Jewish Advocate

"In this valuable book, Kurlansky brings alive the missing years of European Jewry."

——The Washington Post Book World

"Consistently absorbing . . . A Chosen Few investigates the relatively uncharted territory of an encouraging phenomenon."

——Los Angeles Times

"I can think of no book that portrays with such intelligence, historical understanding, and journalistic flair what life has been like for Jews determined to build lives in Europe."

——SUSAN MIRON, Forward

"This book is a fascinating review of the changing life of Jews and Judaism and Europeans in general since the Second World War."

——Rocky Mountain News

"Kurlansky does an astonishingly informative job here, covering a vast array of individuals and communities throughout Europe, chronicling the economic, political, and cultural trends that reshaped and often played havoc with their lives and destinies. His descriptions of life in Antwerp, Paris, Budapest, and Amsterdam are superb, while his chapters on Poland are among the best I’ve read."

——SUSAN MIRON, Forward

"A richly descriptive and insightful survey of post-Holocaust European Jewry . . . With a novelist’s eye for irony and description, [Kurlansky] offers many moments of transcendence and humor; entertaining culture clashes between communists and capitalists, religious and secular, Zionists and diasporists. . . . A lively, penetrating follow-up to Holocaust readings that speaks volumes about the resiliency of the Jewish people."

——Kirkus Reviews