Books Set in North America, California, USA

Porcupines, by Fran Fabriczki (2026)

Porcupines is a very funny novel about Sonia, young illegal immigrant from Hungary living in California, and her young daughter, Mila.  Sonia left Hungary as an 18-year-old to visit her sister and overstayed her visa.  In Hungary, her family led a very secular life, but her sister has become very Orthodox in the United States.  After she becomes pregnant, Sonia cuts herself off from her family.

New to America and new to motherhood, Sonia navigates live in California, while concealing her past.

This was a quick and funny novel.

Read: June 24, 2026

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe and Asia: Hungary, Poland and Israel

In Our Hearts We Were Giants: The Remarkable Story of the Lilliput Troupe ~ A Dwarf Family’s Survival of the Holocaust, by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev (2004)

 

This book is about the Ovitz family, a Jewish family from Transylvania.  In 1868, the patriarch of the family, Shimshon Eizik Ovitz.  He was born to normal-sized parents; however, he acquired a mutant gene, which made him a dwarf.  He married and his wife, who was of normal height, gave birth to two daughters, both of whom were also dwarfs.  Shortly after his wife died, Shimshon remarried a young woman, only a few years older than his oldest daughter.  Soon, their family grew.  Of Shimshon’s 10 children, seven were dwarfs.  The oldest child, Rozika, was born in 1886; the youngest, Perla, in 1921.

 

The family stuck together, with the normal-sized sibling caring for the other seven.  They built their own vaudeville troupe, known as the Lilliput Troupe, and entertained neighboring villages and cities with music, skits, jokes and other entertainment.  This made them well known and afforded them a means to survive.

 

Then the Holocaust came to their part of Transylvania.  All Jews of the area were transported to concentration camps.  The Ovitz family (minus one brother) were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  The novelty of having seven little people in one family caught the eye of Joseph Mengele, and they were spared, along with their 3 normal-sized sibling.  They also convinced Mengele that several other townspeople were also family members.

 

This gave Mengele an opportunity to “experiment” on the entire extended family.  In exchange, the family was afforded certain “luxuries” not afforded the other prisoners.  They all lived in fear, however, never knowing what atrocities would be committed to their bodies.  Amazingly, despite the torture inflicted upon them, all of the members of the extended “family” survived the Holocaust.  They ultimately were able to immigrate to Israel, where they spent their remaining lives.

 

This is an important story and provides insight into the human experimentation conducted in the camps.  The book, however, jumps around too much, which interrupts the flow of the story.

 

Read:  January 21, 2021

 

3.5 Stars

 

 

 

 

 

Books Set in Europe: Budapest, Hungary

Strangers in Budapest, by Jessica Keener (2017)

In the summer of 1995, soon after the collapse of Communism in Hungary, Annie and Will moved to Budapest, Hungary.  Will believed that Hungary would be an ideal country for him to exploit a business opportunity.  They arrive with their young son, Leo.  Leo was recently adopted, but this story thread seem to have no bearing on the rest of the book.

Before leaving for Hungary, Will and Annie’s elderly neighbors, Rose and Jozef, put them in touch with Edward, another elderly man who is living Jozef’s apartment in Budapest.  Edward is a crotchety old may who insists on secrecy.  He is in Budapest to hunt down the man he believes killed his daughter.  The evidence he presents to Annie is thin.  Is Edward just grieving for his dead daughter?

While Will is out making potential business contacts, he meets Stephen.  Stephen acts as translator.  He is of Hungarian background, but lived most of his life in America.  After meeting Will and Annie, Stephen just happens to run into the young couple.  Is this a coincidence?

Annie has a need to help people.  She encounters young Gypsy girls, or as she quickly learns, should be called Roma, and wants to help them.  They offer her flowers, then demand money.  Because the American dollar goes far in post-Communist Hungary, she gives them what is actually tons of money.  Will is robbed of his wallet, which contained $900.  Other than reporting the theft, and encountering Stephen at the police station, nothing further comes of this event.

This novel was way too busy.  There are too many story threads and too many people.  The novel provide a clear depiction of Budapest, and having visited the city several times, I could visualize the places described.  Still, I got bored with the characters and the final resolution of the novel stretched credibility.

Read: August 4, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Austria-Hungary

Sisi: Empress On Her Own, by Allison Pataki (2016)

I picked up this book thinking that it was about the Chinese Empress Cixi.  Instead, the book was about Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary, known as Sisi, the wife of Emperor Frans Joseph.  The novel follows the life of Sisi from age 30 to her murder at age 60.  She felt constrained by the formality of the Hapsburg dynasty so would spend as little time in Vienna as possible.  Her husband adored him, but she felt that she was a pawn in a political marriage.

The novel describes her relationships, or lack thereof, with her children.  Her domineering mother-in-law took over the education and rearing of her oldest children, so Sisi was determined to insulate her youngest child from the rigors of court life.

The author did a lot of research in crafting this novel.  I found myself stopping often and researching to see if events described in the book really happened.  They did.

An interesting look at the Hapsburg empire in the latter part of the 1800s.

Read:  January 4, 2018

4 Stars