How do nations reinvent themselves after cataclysmic events? Who gets to decide what happened yesterday, then to propagate the tale, and what are the consequences of their choices? These are some of the questions author and historian Erna Paris carried with her through the United States, with its long-buried memory of slavery; to South Africa, to sit in on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's attempts to heal the divisions of apartheid; to Japan, France and Germany and the unresolved pain of Hiroshima and the Holocaust; and to the former Yugoslavia where she exposes the cynical shaping of historical memory, and the way the world community responded to the lethal outcome of that half-imagined history.

Combining gripping storytelling with insight and sharp observation, Paris takes us to the places of reckoning—be they courtrooms or concentration camps—and finds hope in the way ordinary people grapple with the defining events of their lives. Evocatively written, her journey illuminates a crucial subject that straddles the 20th and 21st centuries.

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

SUBMITTED 2001 - Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize
SUBMITTED 2001 - The Jewish Book Award
WINNER 2001 - Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
SUBMITTED 2001 - Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

"The reader is changed forever by reading Long Shadows. Working one's way through this book is akin to listening to complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler in a single sitting—an overwhelming experience, one that raises the profound philosophical questions of our time. Paris's analysis and storytelling talents never let the reader go. Deeply moving." —Quill and Quire

“[an] ambitious…superb work of popular history and thought. [a] brilliantly conceived quest…Long Shadows is simply first-rate writing…an intellectual triumph, in its refusal to succumb to denial and its hopeful faith that it’s better to know.” —Stan Persky, Vancouver Sun

"[Erna] Paris…intelligently examines [memory] within the context of national remembrance." —Canadian Jewish News

"[Long Shadows] rings with the moral authority of a voice raised in defence of human rights and cries out for no-amnesty accountability for war crimes." —Montreal Gazette

"[a] powerful and sombre book…Paris’s belief in an honest search for the facts…is admirable and ultimately inspiring." —The Globe and Mail

”[Paris] walks with a keen eye, a journalist’s skill at detail…a high intelligence and a deft pen…. [A] timely contribution.” —Ottawa CItizen

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

Erna Paris Official Web site

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

Acknowledgements
Prelude: A Journey to the Stricken Lands

MEMORY AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR
1. The Stone of Sisyphus: Germany
2. Through a Glass Darkly: France
3. Erasing History: Pretense and Oblivion in Japan

WAR, MEMORY AND RACE
4. The Shadow of Slavery: The United States
5. The Beloved Country: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa

WAR, MEMORY AND IDENTITY
6. Who Will Own the Holocaust?
7. the Furies of War Revisit Europe: Yugoslavia and Bosnia

IS THERE JUSTICE?
8. New Genocide, New Trials: The Legacy of Nuremberg

Coda: In the Wake of Memory and Forgetfulness

Notes
Index

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

Erna Paris is the winner of ten national and international writing awards, including the Canada-U.S. White Award for journalism, a gold medal from the National Magazine Awards Foundation, and four Media Club of Canada awards for feature writing and radio documentary. She is the author of five critically acclaimed books of literary non-fiction, most recently The End of Days: Tolerance, Tyranny and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, which won the 1996 National Jewish Book Award for History. She lives in Toronto.

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page