AUTHOR EVENT
Author Ron Balson will be joining the Book Club via Skype on Monday October 8, 2018.
"Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, the Butcher of Zamosc. Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser is convinced he is right and engages attorney Catherine Lockhart to bring Rosenzweig to justice. Solomon persuades attorney Catherine Lockhart to take his case, revealing that the true Piatek was abandoned as a child and raised by Solomon's own family only to betray them during the Nazi occupation. But has Solomon accused the right man?
Once We Were Brothers is Ronald H. Balson's compelling tale of two boys and a family who struggle to survive in war-torn Poland, and a young love that struggles to endure the unspeakable cruelty of the Holocaust. Two lives, two worlds, and sixty years converge in an explosive race to redemption that makes for a moving and powerful tale of love, survival, and ultimately the triumph of the human spirit."
About Ronald H. Balson
"I can’t say there was a date or a time or an event where I made a decision to lead a “literary life.” I just added writing books to my non-literary life. Through the years, writing has always been a central focus for me I was an editor of my high school and college newspapers. I’ve been a litigation attorney for over forty years, and, of course, in that capacity I’ve written countless briefs, memoranda, appeals, and arguments. When you get right down to it, it’s all really story-telling. I always thought that writing a novel was on my horizon, but I never got around to it, or I never got my mind wrapped around a story that impelled me to get around to it. Finally, opportunity knocked hard nine years ago when my practice took me to Poland on a telecommunications case. Traveling around that country, encountering the remnants and scars of World War II, I was inspired to write a book about a family in wartime Poland, which ultimately became Once We Were Brothers. Getting back to “leading a literary life,” I concede it’s been a shift. I still practice law and go about my routines, except now I get to travel all around the country (world, even) and talk to people who want to engage me in discussions about my books. I confess. It’s fun."