I am beyond thrilled to welcome Daniel Kalla to Diary of an Eccentric today. Daniel is the author of The Far Side of the Sky, a novel set in Shanghai during World War II and focusing on the German and Austrian Jews who fled Hitler’s Reich only to encounter new trials and dangers. The Far Side of the Sky is sure to make my “best reads of 2012″ list, so I am delighted that Daniel is here to talk about his father, to whom the novel is dedicated, a man who shares many of the traits of the novel’s hero, Dr. Franz Adler.
Please give a warm welcome to Daniel Kalla:
Here’s an obscure Father’s Day recollection: my dad once told me that the Hungarian Nazis in Budapest were even more vicious than the common German variety. Why, you might wonder, would I possibly remember this on this past Father’s Day of all times? For that I need to offer a little perspective.
I lost my dad—a long-reformed chain smoker and one-time cancer surgeon—to lung cancer two year ago. Dad was never a big fan of Father’s Day. But, in his defense, Dad wasn’t much of a believer in any religious or secular holiday.
My father was a complex man. He was intensely private, extremely proud and stubborn beyond pigheaded, but he was also generous, principled, fiercely loyal and very funny. He once ordered a pizza to be delivered to an Italian restaurant whose manager told him that the kitchen was too busy to make pizza that night!
But back to the war… as a Jewish teenager, my father survived Nazi-occupied Hungary largely thanks to his wits and a big dollop of luck. He witnessed horrible things during those years and was reluctant to ever discuss his experiences; his comment about the Hungarian Nazis was one of the few exceptions. I think Dad believed that he had lived through a uniquely evil period and saw no use in dredging up that past.
I dedicated my latest novel, THE FAR SIDE OF THE SKY, to the memory of Dad. Partly, because I had just lost him but mainly because he inspired my story. Bizarrely, I didn’t realize he was the inspiration until after it was written. Even then, it took my cousin to point it out to me.
My novel’s hero, Dr. Franz Adler, is a widowed secular Austrian surgeon who is swept up by the tidal wave of anti-Semitism that swept Vienna after Kristallnacht. Desperate to find sanctuary for his handicapped daughter, he escapes to the only place that will have them: Shanghai. There, Franz finds a burgeoning German Jewish community who faces a unique set of challenges in arguably the Twentieth Century’s most eclectic, cosmopolitan and fascinating city. He also falls in love with a Eurasian Shanghai native, a nurse who understand what it means to be a fish out of water, but that’s another story. Well, the same story but you get it…
After my cousin read the draft, he asked why I had chosen to write about my father. I told him that was nonsense—that I never base fictional characters on real people and my novel recounted the amazing, yet little known, history of the Shanghai Jews, not my family’s experience. Then my cousin began pointing out parallels: my dad’s name was Frank, he was a surgeon like Franz, they shared the same stubborn temperament and brave personalities and they were both considered dreamy by their nursing colleagues. At that moment, I realized: holy crap! Of course Dad was the template for my fictional hero!
I am forever grateful that my father did have a chance to read the first draft of the manuscript. He told me he loved it but Dad (never being one to offer unconditional praise) also said that he’s not sure he would have been interested if he wasn’t a Jewish doctor himself. Maybe Dad, too, had seen himself in the role, but he never said as much to me.
Father’s Day reminds me acutely of my loss. I think of the many little running jokes, observations and the pearls of wisdom that Dad used to toss out. And oddly, today I just thought about the murderous Hungarian Nazis whom he managed to outwit.
Thanks, Daniel, for sharing your story. Your father sounds like an amazing man.
Giveaway:
Courtesy of the publisher, I have one copy of The Far Side of the Sky to offer to my readers. This giveaway is open to readers in the U.S. and Canada and will close at 11:59 pm EST on Thursday, June 28, 2012.
**Please note that this giveaway is now closed**
Disclosure: I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.
© 2012 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.
What a wonderful story. Writers are inspired by people they know without even knowing it sometimes. Great guest post.
btw, I posted the giveaway in my sidebar!
This sounds dumb to say, but I never thought about Jewish refugees fleeing to Asia-I guess the map in my head always showed them fleeing to surrounding European countries, the U.K. or the U.S.
Daniel-Condolences on the loss of your father-he sounds like an amazing man. Thanks for sharing some of your memories of him-I love the story about the pizza!
I’m in awe of those who survived the atrocities of World War II and went on the live “normal” lives without dwelling on the horrors. It sounds like Kalla’s father was a gem.
This sounds so interesting! I hadn’t read what the book was about, but I had seen the cover a few times (and loved it). What an interesting story and I agree with BermudaOnion I am also in awe of those who survived and lived normal lives after such horribleness.
Anna,
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to share a few memories of my dad. Also, biased as I am, I absolutely loved your review. I really thought you spelled out the essence of what I was trying to capture in my novel!
Thank you!
The book sounds really good, and I enjoyed reading the authors guest post. His dad sounds like an amazing person.
Wow how wonderful to have the author write about his father and the book. I very much enjoyed the guest post …. and would like to read the book
This book combines my love of books set in Asia and Holocaust themed based books.
PS Great post.
This is terrific and fascinating guest post. Daniel Kalla’s father sounds like an amazing man and someone it would have been a privelege to know. I can understand why he wouldn’t want to talk about what he experienced and saw in Nazi-occupied Hungary. I’m sure his memories were very painful and disturbing and he may have felt there was no reason to visit his those things on his son or to relive them himself. I love that Franz Adler is modeled after Daniel’s father. It makes me even more interested in reading The Far Side of the Sky and brings a greater aspect of reality to his book.
Thank you Daniel Kalla for sharing this amazing post with us. And thank you Anna!
[...] 5th. In the past week, we’ve secured coverage for the book at Jenn’s Bookshelves blog; Diary of an Eccentric blog; and Huffington Post [...]
This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered or just stopped by to read the guest post. The winner will be chosen via Randomizer.org, emailed, and announced shortly.