Goodreads asked Harriet Levin:

What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?

Harriet Levin I've always wanted to write about my grandparents' immigration. All four of my grandparents came here from Eastern Europe or Russia--I don't even know where! The reasons why they came here, how they traveled, and where they came from are complete mysteries to me. Three of my grandparents came here when they were very young but my maternal grandfather came here in his twenties. But he died when I was only ten years old, so I never got a chance to learn about him. I've tried to find out where they were from by looking them up at YIVO but I got nowhere, probably because I only know their American names. I would need to extensively research their lives and then probably invent much of it to tell their stories. The loss of my grandparents' histories make it all the more important for refugees and immigrants today to write down their own stories.

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