Lauren Fox is the author of the novels Days of Awe, Still Life with Husband, and Friends Like Us. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, Parenting, and Psychology Today. She lives in Milwaukee with her family.
A New York Times Best Historical Novel of the Year • An Indie Next
Great Read • A Parade Best Releases of the Year
"An anthropological excavation... It is haunted throughout by the
endlessly fascinating question of inheritance. How much of our
stories — and which parts — truly belong to us?... The
book is a real achievement — beautifully written, deeply felt,
tender and thoughtful... The storytelling is patient,
generous... The major accomplishment of “Send for Me” [is] its
vivid depiction of a family’s heartbreak, its rending and
rebuilding."
—Clare Lombardo, New York Times Book Review
"Incandescent... Send for Me reads like a memoir but has the kind
of intimate detail born in the imagination of a novelist at the top
of her game."
—People
"Above all, as Fox states many times, Send for Me is a love story.
The push-and-pull style of love between parents and their children
is what binds Fox’s characters and allows the reader to pass
fluidly between the different generations of the family, spotting
so easily how they have been shaped by those who lived before
them.”
—BookReporter
"Extraordinarily nuanced and moving... Fox elegantly
incorporates lines and short excerpts of her own
great-grandmother’s letters, adding to the power and intimacy of
this fine novel."
—The National Book Review
"An artfully constructed and richly absorbing novel that shows how
love is strengthened, not weakened, over distance and time.”
—Malcolm Forbes, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Lauren Fox’s newest novel, Send for Me, is a quiet, heartbreaking,
intergenerational story that highlights the insidious racism
against Jews in World War II and the lingering effects of family
trauma... Fox’s writing is so deft, the story so subtle and
sad, flipping seamlessly from World War II Germany to modern-day
Milwaukee. It doesn’t put you smack dab in the center of Nazi
violence or concentration camp nightmares, but flits around the
edges of that brutal history to tell a new, altogether different
tale—a story of lucky ones who escaped, and the guilt that haunts
them... a richly imagined, lyrically written story that
belongs among novels such as The Book Thief and All the Light We
Cannot See. The year is still young, but I’ll guarantee this will
be on my list of favorites from 2021."
—Suzanne Perez, NPR.com
“Send for Me is one of those quiet books that resonates long after
its final pages. It is about family – especially mothers and
daughters. It is also about obligation and self. Its beautifully
rendered vignettes are, in essence, about ‘the fraying wire’ that
connects us to the past.”
—Steve Whitton, Anniston Star
“Page after page of Send for Me shines with the author’s brilliant
prose … Fox has written a book you will not soon forget.”
—Mims Cushing, Florida Times-Union
"Fox crafts a heartbreaking tale about how the separation of one
mother and daughter was so excruciating that the shadow of that
moment lingers on in the family’s descendents. Send for Me examines
how trauma can be inherited and how it’s lingering aches can impact
future generations."
—The Middletown Press
"Real family letters from Nazi era heighten Send for Me... The
Shorewood writer has fused her vocation and her legacy in a
memorable way. Her historical novel Send for Me builds on
those letters to portray four generations of women in a family
ruptured by the Nazi regime... Relevant."
—Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"A sense of foreboding shadows this bittersweet
intergenerational tale of love and trauma... Subtle, striking, and
punctuated by snippets of family letters.. Fox has imbued this
deeply personal, ultimately hopeful novel, which she explains in an
author’s note is based on her own family’s story, with emotion,
empathy, and an essential understanding of the complicated bonds
between generations and the importance of reckoning with the past
in order to embrace the future.
An intimate, insightful, intricately rendered story of
intergenerational trauma and love."
—Kirkus, starred
"Fox deftly moves between generations as she illuminates the ways
that choices echo through the lives of those who came after. This
thoughtful, character-driven exploration of the unbreakable bonds
of motherhood will appeal to fans of Alice Hoffman and Elizabeth
Berg.”
—Booklist
“Send For Me is a rare and beautiful novel. In luminous prose, with
great economy and precision, Lauren Fox twines together two
stories: one that explores both the menace and the day-to-day
ordinariness of life in Germany under Hitler, and its aftermath,
and one that captures the yearning and intensity of youth in the
present day. While sorrow may be inevitable, Fox seems to say, life
is also threaded with hope and joy and human connection. I loved
this book.”
—Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train
"Send For Me is stunning in its tender poignancy. A beautifully
told story of intergenerational loves and sorrows, the long shadow
of memory, and how hope can repair the heartache woven into a
family's DNA."
—Jennifer Rosner, author of The Yellow Bird Sings
"Imbued with lyrical prose, Send For Me is a beautiful tale of
heartbreak and renewal, and of the love and loss we carry with us,
generation after generation."
—Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones
"Spanning generations and continents, from pre-WWII Germany to
current day midwestern America, Send For Me is a richly imagined
testament to the ties that bind: the intricate web of familial
duty, the profound love between mothers and daughters, and the
tension between honoring one's heritage while not being defined by
it. Lauren Fox's first historical novel is moving, heartfelt, and
filled with love."
—Whitney Scharer, author of Age of Light
"Fox satisfyingly brings this story of love and desire full circle,
as Clare and Ruth reflect on what it means to be both a mother and
a child in the darkest of times. This tender and deeply inspired
story will move readers."
—Publishers Weekly
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