Interview with Lauren Fox, author of “Days of Awe”

The author Lauren Fox. © Amanda Schlicher.

When I had finished „Days of Awe“ I was happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because Lauren Fox had written a realistic ending to the story of Izzy, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, whose world is turned upside down when the loss of both her best friend and her husband leave disenchanted with middle-aged life. Sad, because I wanted to know more, especially about where Lauren Fox had found the courage to create a protagonist whose family’s experience of persecution plays a role in her life without being the only thing that defines her.

Fortunately, Lauren Fox agreed to answer some questions I had emailed her.

A novel about a Holocaust survivor’s daughter living in the present, not the past

I have been waiting for a novel like „Days of Awe“ by Lauren Fox for a long time. Finally, an author dares to portray the daughter of a Holocaust survivor as a person whose life is multi-faceted, and only one of these facets is the trauma experienced by her family. In fact, Izzy, the second generation narrator, at 43 struggles to keep her worn-out life as wife, mother and confidante from falling apart much the same way as other women might do, that is, with a healthy mixture of longing to be truly seen, a pinch of dark humor and some self-loathing.