Notes from the Other Side of Night: From Communism to a Fragile Freedom

A lyrical memoir of
living under, and escaping from, anti-Semitism and the tyranny of communism.


“There are scenes in this book that the
reader will never forget.”—Mircea Eliade



With a new Afterword
by the author and a new Introduction by bestselling historian Wilfred M. McClay



In Notes from the
Other Side of Night, Juliana Geran Pilon provides a beautiful memoir of a
return to her native Romania in 1975, which she left with her family when she
was just fourteen. Poetically weaving together hard-won adult insights with her
childhood perceptions, Pilon tells the haunting stories of her parents,
grandparents, neighbors, and friends. She recounts the chilling realities of anti-Semitism,
political imprisonment, and judicial execution under Romania’s ruthless
communist authorities. And she remembers those few who managed to retain their
humanity despite the horrors that surrounded them.

Told with detached
melancholy, the result is a book full of political and spiritual wisdom. At a
time when the totalitarian crimes of the last century are being minimized, if
not entirely ignored, Pilon’s meditation on evil, hope, and love is profoundly moving.