A lyrical memoir of living under, and escaping from, anti-Semitism and the tyranny of communism.
“There are scenes in this book that the reader will never forget.”—Mircea Eliade
With a new Afterword by the author and a new Introduction by bestselling historian Wilfred M. McClay
In Notes from the Other Side of Night, Juliana Geran Pilon provides a beautiful memoir of a return to her native Romania in 1975, which she left with her family when she was just fourteen. Poetically weaving together hard-won adult insights with her childhood perceptions, Pilon tells the haunting stories of her parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends. She recounts the chilling realities of anti-Semitism, political imprisonment, and judicial execution under Romania’s ruthless communist authorities. And she remembers those few who managed to retain their humanity despite the horrors that surrounded them.
Told with detached melancholy, the result is a book full of political and spiritual wisdom. At a time when the totalitarian crimes of the last century are being minimized, if not entirely ignored, Pilon’s meditation on evil, hope, and love is profoundly moving.
Juliana Geran Pilon is a Senior Fellow at the Alexander Hamilton
Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, where she has directed AHI’s
Washington Program on National Security since 2016. Her books include:
An
Idea Betrayed: Jews, Liberalism, and the American Left;
The Utopian
Conceit and the War on Freedom;
The Art of Peace: Engaging a
Complex World;
Soulmates: Resurrecting Eve; the anthology
Cultural
Intelligence for Winning the Peace;
Why America is Such a Hard
Sell: Beyond Pride and Prejudice; the anthology
Every Vote Counts:
The Role of Elections in Building Democracy, which she co-edited with
Richard Soudriette; and
The Bloody Flag: Post-Communist Nationalism in
Eastern Europe—Spotlight on Romania. The author of over two hundred fifty
articles and reviews on international affairs, human rights, literature, and
philosophy, she has made frequent appearances on radio and television. Her
writings have recently appeared in the
Wall Street Journal, Law &
Liberty, the
Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), Academic Questions,
the
American
Mind, and the
Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, among
other places.
Mircea Eliade (1907–86), a native of Romania, was a celebrated religious historian, philosopher, and novelist. A longtime professor at the University of Chicago, Eliade’s best-known books include A History of Religious Ideas and The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History.
Wilfred M. McClay is Professor of History at Hillsdale College,
where he holds the Victor Davis Hanson Chair of Classical History and Western
Civilization. He is the author several award-winning books, including The
Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America, Jewish Roots of American
Liberty: The Impact of Hebraic Ideas on the American Story, and the
bestselling Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story.
