Affinity Konar, author of ''MISCHLING'': --- QUOTE UNQUOTE: "It does seem she is evading something or maybe even pretending to be something she is not for the sake of PR and sales for her book. "

UPDATE: October 22, 2016

 

[BTW, “A Outra Metade de Mim” = "The Other Half of Me" --- this is the title being used in Brazil in the Portuguese language]

 

A Jewish reporter in Manhattan who met Affinity up close and personal at an event earlier this year in New York tried to ask her face to face if she was Jewish or not. He later told me in an email:

"She called herself ''Polish Jewish'' and
it was clear from meeting and talking to her that the Holocaust was a topic of conversation in her childhood home in California.

She told me she was quote unquote ''Polish Jewish,'' and  admittedly ''Polish Jewish'' is a strange assignation: I don't call myself ''American Jewish'' or ''Hungarian Jewish'' even though my grandparents were Hungarian Jews. I just say I'm ''Jewish.''  Affinity never said that,  not once. 

It does seem she is evading something or maybe even pretending to be something she is not for the sake of PR and sales for her book.

 But in the end it kind of didn't matter when I met her.
Affinity was smart, very tender and plainly haunted by her novel."

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Jewish book reviewer Elizabeth Rosner explains why ‘Mischling’ by Affinity Konar is a 'dishonest' #Holocaust novel

 

http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2016/10/jewish-book-reviewer-elizabeth-rosner.html

Affinity's PR photo from her publishers in NYC

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A book reviewer in Canada,

​Eric Volmers,​

started his interview with Konar in the Calgary newspapers with these opening lines:

''Affinity Konar laughs when asked about the sparseness of her bio on the back cover of her new novel, 'Mischling'.

It’s two short sentences, revealing only that the author was raised in California and has a MFA in fiction from Columbia University.'''

​http://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/books/wordfest-affinity-konar-counters-horror-with-empathy-in-auschwitz-set-historical-novel-mischling​

The interview, online now, which begins with a lead sentence that sort of implies the reporter himself is a bit curious about the sparseness of the author's bio, continues:


“It’s a very blank bio,” she admits, on the line from her home in Los Angeles. “When they asked me for one I couldn’t think of anything worth saying about myself. I really just sit in a room and write.”

 

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A reader at Goodreads told this blog via email in September:

"I can readily understand your personal outrage over the publishers or PR people not replying to your very normal qusetions, is she Jewish or not?...., although my own concerns are not entirely the same as yours. For me, it's not so much a question of her Jewishness (or not), but more an issue of her exploitation of the Holocaust in order to promote herself as a "clever" Columbia MFA project writer. I don't actually see her as a "genius" of any kind. In my opinion, non-Jews (if she is one) are perfectly welcome to write about the Holocaust, as long as they do so with sensitivity, respect and humility. These are the same expectations I hold for Jewish writers, too, by the way. ''

''Not many peeps are  willing to critique her work. I'm therefore NOT surprised that her editors and publicists are NOT responding to you.''