Irena's Gift Quotes

“Most families harbor secrets, ordeals we’d rather forget, myths we invent to protect ourselves and those we love. The question is, how to keep secrets and preserve stories of our pasts without lying? And if we don’t unravel the lies, how will we ever know the truth?”
― Karen Kirsten, Irena's Gift: An Epic WWII Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, and Survival

“I have learned that stories we tell aren’t always truthful. Truth, if we find it, can be ugly. The world isn’t straightforward, good or evil. And the line between right or wrong, guilty or blameless, is not clear.”
― Karen Kirsten, Irena's Gift: An Epic WWII Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, and Survival

“History is not a box you tie a pretty ribbon around. There are no neat bows to finish things off.”
― Karen Kirsten, Irena's Gift: An Epic WWII Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, and Survival