Books: “Farewell Homeland” by Fuat Andic

Fuat Andic’s Farewell Homeland follows the fate of one Jewish family as it navigates the stormy waters of the Sephardic Diaspora in 1492 through World War II. The Ben Naum family begins their generations-long voyage the year Queen Isabella declares all Arabs and Jews unwelcome in SpainÂ?forever. Escaping to Salonica in the then Ottoman Empire, the Ben Naums find prosperity and tolerance, but as divisions occur in the Jewish community in 1966 with the appearance of Sabbatai Zevi as the Messiah, they become his followers and outwardly convert to Islam, adopting a new family name: Aziz. For more than three hundred years the venerable Azizoglu family thrives among the tolerant Ottomans, but the Twentieth Century brings two world wars, dislocation, and the ultimate threat to the clan in the form of Nazi occupation and deportation West. Written with pathos and heart, Farewell Homeland is the little told story of the Jews and the Ottoman Empire, and one familyÂ’s saga of survival and rebirth.

• Farewell Homeland
• Author: Fuat Andic
• Publisher: BookSurge,LLC, 214 pages
• Publication Date: 2009-03-16
• Language: English
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN-10: 1439214697
• ISBN-13: 9781439214695
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches

About the Author

Dr. Fuat Andic was born in Turkey. He attended the University of Istanbul in Turkey and the University of Michigan. He has a doctor’s degree from the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. He is a retired professor and is married. Dr. Andic is the author of several books and articles and has several historical books published in Turkey and in the U.S. He and his wife reside in Washington D.C.

Reviews

EXCELLENT BOOK

This is truly a fascinating book that weaves the art of story telling into historical facts, beginning with the expulsion of Jews from Spain 1492 ending with Nazi’s extermination of Salonika Jews in 1943. I have seldom read during the long years of my life,( I am an avid reader) such a powerful combination of joy, success, agony, defeat so masterfully narrated. Author’s perception of history is indeed remarkable. Farewell Homeland is a novel that one cannot let go once one starts to read.

Ms. Winni Schunck
Bad Herrenalb, Germany

EXCELLENT BOOK

Farewell Homeland is a beautifully written story that will captivate the reader. Dr. Andic immediately brings the reader into the story, making one feel part of the action with his rich, descriptive narrative, poignant poetry, and well developed characterizations. This book will pull at your heart strings and the characters will haunt you. If you like stories with adventure, history, romance, and/or war… Farewell Homeland has it all. My only complaint is that I found it too short because I wanted to keep on reading! Kudos to the author who obviously has the soul of a poet.

By Ellen K. Reisman

EXCELLENT BOOK

This is a fascinating, well written history of an extended family through multiple generations living and continually immigrating to find freedom under multiple empires in Europe. This easy reading story brings political and religious history into focus and makes one realize how little is different today.

By Well Read (Miami)

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