Long Shadows: Truth, Lies & History

Winner of the Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, the inaugural Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing, and the Dorothy Shoichet Prize for History from the Canadian Jewish Book Awards. One of the most urgent issues facing the world today is how countries shape historical memory in the aftermath of calamity, making decisions that cast long shadows into the future. Combining gripping storytelling with sharp observation, Erna Paris takes us on an extraordinary journey through four continents to explore how nations reinvent themselves after cataclysmic events. She travels through the United States, with its long-buried memory of slavery; to South Africa, where the Truth and Reconciliation Commission struggles to heal the wounds left by apartheid; to Japan, France, and Germany, where the unresolved pain of Hiroshima and the Holocaust still resonate; and to the former Yugoslavia, where she exposes the cynical shaping of historical memory. Through its insightful analysis, Long Shadows compels us to question where we stand as individuals in relation to our own collective histories.

About the Author :
Erna Paris is the winner of seven national and international writing awards. She is the author of five critically acclaimed books of literary non-fiction, most recently The End of Days: A Story of Tolerance, Tyranny and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, which won the 1996 Canadian National Jewish Book Award for History. She lives in Toronto.

Review :
"Magnificent. I would love to see this book taught in every history class in America."--Iris Chang, author of" The Rape of Nanking" "An indispensable book."--Eric Hobsbawm, "The New Statesman" (London) "Enlightening . . . Riveting . . . Paris raises questions of enormous importance."--"Kirkus Reviews" "Erna Paris gives us a rich, if painful, inventory of the recent, dubious uses to which we are putting the past."--"Washington Post Book World " "Paris convincingly demonstrates that memory is not only selective but subject to calculated efforts to serve personal needs and national interests."--"The Christian Science Monitor" "An ambitious . . . superb work of popular history and thought. A brilliantly conceived quest . . . Long Shadows is simply first-rate writing . . . an intellectual triumph."--Stan Persky, "Vancouver Sun" "Long Shadows is a tenacious and intelligent investigation of the ways nations lie to themselves and how these lies scar national identities. It is also a study of the ways courageous individuals fight to recover the truth that these lies conceal. Anyone who thinks about the complex relation between lies, truth and historical justice must engage with Erna Paris's work."--Michael Ignatieff "Erna Paris's extraordinary journey of a book is a passionate, eloquent and timely voice of opposition to those who would fashion history as an instrument of power, not of memory and struggle."--John Pilger "Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History is a work of creative non-fiction that extends the genre into mythology and magic, allowing Erna Paris to make an essential statement about humanity. Beautifully written, superbly researched and constantly thought-provoking, it demonstrates in chilling detail how various countries, as different as Germany and Japan, the United States and France, South Africa and Yugoslavia, have shaped their historical memory to obscure and distort shameful facts from their past . . . She has written a magisterial, yet highly readable, book of true and lasting importance."--Jury Citation for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, Ottawa, May 2, 2001 0"Pre-eminent among [this year's books] was Erna Paris's Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History, an exploration of how our world deals, or fails to deal, with the aftermath of great violence, horror and acts of inhumanity. This is a work of philosophical depth and moral courage. It is distinguished by vivid and precise prose, equally successful in sketching subtleties of personality and in exploring complex moral issues."--Jury Citation for the Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, Toronto, March 5, 2000 "The reader is forever changed by reading Long Shadows. Working one's way through this book is akin to listening to complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler in a single sitting--an overwhelming experience, one that raises the profound philosophical questions of our time. Paris's analysis and storytelling talents never let the reader go. Deeply moving."--Quill & Quire "A powerful, searing book . . . unforgettable"--Library Journal "Erna Paris's account of the aftermath of extreme racial discrimination in the United States and South Africa . . . is among the most vivid and evocative in a text rich in literary narrative of the highest order . . . this is a book everyone should read."--Richard Overy, The Literary Review (London) "Long Shadows is well worth the trip for readers seeking insights into the difficult to comprehend world of national atrocities."--Journal of the Law Society (New South Wales, Australia)