For Immediate Release
Contact: Mathias B. Freese
1786 Tanner Circle, Henderson, NV 89012
702-685-2446
I Truly Lament – Working through the Holocaust by Mathias B. Freese
“Weirdly wonderful” short story collection explores the Holocaust from diverse perspectives in literary styles ranging from gothic and romantic to phantasmagoric
Acclaimed author Mathias B. Freese writes from the fundamental understanding that human beings are much less than we generally give them credit for. Further, he believes that the human species is wildly damaged, for only a damaged species could have committed the Holocaust.
With this principle in place, Freese, renowned for his award-winning novel The i Tetralogy, publishes a new collection of short stories, I Truly Lament – Working through the Holocaust.
The twenty-seven stories in this collection include inmates in death camps, survivors of these camps, disenchanted Golems complaining about their designated rounds, modern Holocaust deniers and their ravings, collectors of Hitler curiosa (only recently, a few linens from Hitler’s bedroom suite went up for sale!), an imagined interview with Eva Braun during her last days in the Berlin bunker, a Nazi camp doctor who subtly denies his complicity, the love story of a Hungarian cantor, and many more.
Applying differing points of view, in styles ranging from gothic to romantic to phantasmagoric, Freese leads readers to what might be called his own final conclusion – that we will never be done with the Holocaust; we will never work it through.
Critic Duff Brenna, professor emeritus at CSU San Marcos, calls the collection “a monstrous achievement” and likens Freese to a “modern-day Melville wandering those same deserts of discontent, searching for answers to unsolvable questions.”
From out of 424 manuscripts, I Truly Lament – Working through the Holocaust was chosen as one of three finalists in the 2012 Leapfrog Fiction Contest.
The author comments, “In my novel The i Tetralogy, considered by some critics an important contribution to Holocaust literature as well as a work of ‘undying artistic integrity’ (Arizona Daily Sun), I could not imagine it ‘all.’
Endorsement: “‘Freese says that ‘memory must metabolize [the Holocaust] endlessly,’ and his book certainly turns hell into harsh nourishment: keeps us alert, sharpens our nerves and outrage, forbids complacent sleep so the historical horror can’t be glossed over as mere nightmare. The Holocaust wasn’t a dream or even a madness. It was a lucid, non-anomalous act that is ever-present in rational Man. In the face of this fact, Freese never pulls punches. Rather, his deft, brutal, and insightful words punch and punch until dreams’ respite are no longer an option and insanity isn’t an excuse.” ~ David Herrle, author of Sharon Tate and the Daughters of Joy
I Truly Lament – Working through the Holocaust by Mathias B. Freese; Wheatmark; Fiction; Soft Cover 978-1-62787-161-7 $12.95
Availability: amazon.com, wheatmark.com, mthsfreese@hotmail.com
Author: Mathias B. Freese is a writer, teacher, and psychotherapist. His recent collection of essays, This Möbius Strip of Ifs, was the winner of the National Indie Excellence Book Award of 2012 in general nonfiction and a 2012 Global eBook Award finalist. He is also the author of The i Tetralogy and Down to a Sunless Sea.
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