Happy Thursday, friend! Welcome to an interview with author Nicole Zelniker about her latest novel, From Where We Are. I recently had her over for indie recommendations so make sure to check those out next (link opens in new tab). Let’s chat with Nicole about the book.
Get to know the author: Nicole Zelniker
Hi Nicole! Welcome to Armed with A Book. Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!
Hello! I’m Nicole (she/they), author of several books, founder of Knee Brace Press, and proud cat mom. My next book, FROM WHERE WE ARE, comes out on May 21, and my debut YA, ALL I KNOW SO FAR, comes out next year. When I’m not writing, I’m often re-reading a favorite book, listening to musicals on repeat, or posting about being chronically ill online.
How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?
I started writing this book at least four years ago, and it was very different than what I have now. I was living in Brooklyn at the time and had just finished edits for LETTERS I’LL NEVER SEND when I conceived of Gabi, the woman who flees Germany during World War II at the start of the book. I couldn’t quite figure out how to write what came next, so I set it aside for a time, until someone made an offhand comment in a writing group about liking books of interconnected stories.
What makes your story unique?
This is a book that starts in Nazi Germany, but it doesn’t end there. So many books about Jews take place solely within the confines of the Holocaust, but I was much more curious about what happens after. What happens to Gabi after she’s escaped an impossible situation? How do families with intergenerational trauma not only survive, but thrive? What does it mean to love someone whose trauma has made it impossible for them to connect with the people around them?
Did you bring any of your experiences into this book?
Yes! As this is a book of interconnected stories, the person whose story is most like mine narrates chapter six. Miranda was born a few years before me and has similar experiences attending Jewish summer camp and realizing the truth of what’s happening in Palestine, often butting heads with Zionist family members. I did take other aspects of my family history for other characters, but Miranda is the one I relate most closely with, even if her life and mine differ in a lot of ways.
What is something you have learned on your author journey so far?
Your fellow authors are in your corner. When I started my publishing journey, I was hesitant to tell anyone about my books until they were published out of wicked imposter syndrome. Now, I’m much more open about my writing, and I’ve found so much support from other writers, many of whom I initially considered “too cool” to pay attention to my little books. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
If you could give a shout out to someone(s) who has helped in your writer journey, please feel free to mention them below!
I just started working with her, but my agent, Daniele Hunter, has been fantastic. She’s provided not only wonderful feedback on my most recent manuscript and advice about publishing contracts, but also moral support in the form of cat pictures.
Where can readers find you on the Internet?
Come find me on social media! I’m @NicoleWritesBooks on TikTok and @NicoleZelniker on Instagram and TikTok. You can also check out my website, nicolezelniker.com.
From Where We Are
Historical fiction, Published 2024
Gabi Keefer flees Holocaust-era Germany with nothing but her husband, her nephew, and the clothes on her back, but that isn’t the whole story.
Over generations, her granddaughter, Lena, struggles with drug addiction and an unplanned pregnancy; her sort-of nephew, Zane, grieves for his wife three years after her death in an antisemetic mass shooting; and her great-niece, Miranda, advocates for Palestinian liberation against her family’s wishes.
Each character’s tale begs the questions: What does it mean to be part of a family, what does it mean to survive, and is that enough?
Content in this book includes depictions or mentions of ableism, anti-semitism, characters struggling with mental health, death and grief, drug abuse, domestic violence, gun violence, homophobia, misogyny, racism, statutory rape, suicide, xenophobia, and Zionism.
Book Excerpt from
From Where We Are
The day they came for her brother, Gabi’s world shattered. It had held firm through dwindling food stores and yellow notices in the Jewish-owned bakeries her family often frequented. It held through splintered window storefronts along the blocks the men in her family traversed to get to work and the seemingly overnight rejection by her neighbors and former friends. It held through the day her nephew came home crying because he wasn’t allowed to play with his classmates in the park anymore and the men chasing her husband down the street because he was a “dirty Jew” and “communist scum.”
Gabi’s world lasted until they came for Eli, and then everything fell apart.
They needed, big, strong men, they said. Eli’s son Fritz, just thirteen years old at the time, barely qualified as a child. It helped that he was small for his age. Eli’s younger son, Albert, who had always looked older than his nine years. Gabi thanked God he was too young, even though she wasn’t sure anymore if God existed.
Her husband Wally, who worked at the university, got a pass for now. But they would be back, Mama said. “You have to leave.”
Gabi and Wally sat at Mama’s kitchen table, the room clean but nearly empty after so long rationing their food supplies. They visited Mama often, their own house just two blocks north and just as bare of sustenance. Gabi and Wally held hands under the table.
“We can’t leave,” Gabi said. “This is our home.” Gabi had never been to anywhere beyond Germany except for Hungary, where she once visited her sister-in-law’s parents on holiday with her brother. Even then, she’d been relieved to come home after that trip, grateful to wake in her own bed the following morning.
“They’ll come for Wally next,” Mama insisted. “And then they’ll come for you.”
Gabi knew she was right, even if she didn’t want to says so. Already, they heard frantic whispers when they passed through town, harried murmurs of death in the work camps where they had supposedly taken Eli. Gabi didn’t believe half of them, and she chose not to believe the more frightening ones, like the rooms full of poison gas, but they couldn’t all be lies.
“Wally, what do you think?” Mama asked. The yellow star of David stood out starkly against her black sleeve, stitches sloppy along the seams.
Wally took off his round, black-rimmed glasses and rubbed them on his shirt once, twice, three times. He put them back on and pushed them up his nose. “I think we have to leave,” he murmured.
Gabi pulled her hand from Wally’s, her cheeks flushed with anger and the energy she expended trying desperately not to cry. “How could you say that?”
“They’ll take us,” Wally said. “And then we won’t have a home at all.”
“How can we not fight this?” Gabi asked. “How—”
“My mausi, you will be fighting,” Mama said. “You’ll survive.” Gabi’s jaw clenched. Tears pricked at her eyes, and she blinked quickly to keep them from falling. “Well, you have to come with us.”
“Not without Eli,” Mama said. “I’ll stay for Eli.”
“We’ll find him then,” Gabi said, her throat tight. “We’ll find out where he went and—”
Mama shook her head. “No.” Their eyes met, and Gabi realized what Mama already knew. Eli was gone to them forever, and if Mama stayed behind, she would be gone to Gabi too.
Gabi swallowed around the lump in her throat. She looked at Wally, who nodded, and turned back to Mama. “How?”
Interested?
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