Non­fic­tion

Where the Angels Lived: One Fam­i­ly’s Sto­ry of Exile, Loss, and Return

  • From the Publisher
January 1, 2013

The moment she dis­cov­ers the exis­tence of Richard, a long-lost rel­a­tive, at Israel’s Holo­caust Muse­um, Mar­garet McMul­lan begins an unex­pect­ed jour­ney of rev­e­la­tion and con­nec­tiv­i­ty as she research­es the his­to­ry of her ances­tors, the Engel de Jáno­sis. Pro­pelled by a Ful­bright grant that sends her to teach at a Hun­gar­i­an Uni­ver­si­ty, Mar­garet, her hus­band, and their son trav­el to Pécs, the land of her mother’s Jew­ish lin­eage. After reach­ing Pécs, a Hun­gar­i­an town both small and pri­mar­i­ly Chris­t­ian, Mar­garet real­izes right then and there how dif­fi­cult her mis­sion is going to be. Heart-wrench­ing, pas­sion­at, and insight­ful, Where the Angels Lived beau­ti­ful­ly doc­u­ments the relent­less deter­mi­na­tion of a woman pick­ing up the pieces of her family’s frag­ment­ed his­to­ry through­out the Hun­gar­i­an Holocaust.

Discussion Questions