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

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The moment she discovered the existence of Richárd, a long-lost relative, at Israel’s Holocaust Museum, Margaret McMullan began her quest to uncover the forgotten history of her ancestors, the Engel de Jánosis. In Where the Angels Lived: One Family’s Story of Exile, Loss, and Return she shares her family’s journey to Pécs, Hungary, where she uncovered her Jewish ancestry, a part of her past which her grandfather kept hidden.

“The question of why my grandfather never thought to recall and record his own family history accurately has haunted me,” said McMullan. “My grandfather was an ambitious, forward-thinking man who did not want to be slowed down by his past or his family. He may have just wanted a fresh start when he came to America.”

Throughout her new book, McMullan quickly discovers just how distinguished and influential her relatives appear to have been before the Holocaust. However, no one seemed to recall the man whose name she saw that day in Israel: Richárd Engel de Jánosi. With the help of students, strangers and long-lost relatives, McMullan slowly pieces together bits of information about Richárd’s past she never would have found without venturing to her family’s homeland.

Straddling memoir and reportage, past and present, this story reminds us all that we can escape a country, but we can never escape history.

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Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Margaret McMullan is the author of nine award-winning books including In My Mother’s House and Where the Angels Lived. Her essays have appeared in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and other periodicals. A recipient of a National Endowment of Arts Fellowship and a Fulbright at the University of Pécs in Pécs, Hungary, Margaret served as a faculty mentor at the Stony Brook Southampton Low-res MFA Program. She was the Melvin Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Evansville, where she taught for 25 years.