In the Garden of the Righteous

Publishes Today!

To the Octavian Report Community:

I am thrilled to announce that my new book In the Garden of the Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Saves Jews During the Holocaust is being published today by Harper. The book tells ten remarkable stories of courageous rescue during the Holocaust, a topic that has fascinated me for years, and of the little-known heroes who risked their lives to save their neighbors from the Nazis — from the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes to Princess Alice of Greece (King Charles’s grandmother) to the Polish social worker Irena Sendler, from the Italian Tour de France champion Gino Bartali and American intellectual Varian Fry to the German circus ringmaster Adolf Althoff and the Japanese spy Chiune Sugihara. It also explores what impelled these wonderful souls to such extraordinary action at a time of the utmost peril and what we might learn from their example to make our own world a better place.

I hope that you might find their stories as inspiring as I do.

I’m heartened that In the Garden of the Righteous has received significant early praise from outlets as diverse as the Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly and People, including a starred review from Kirkus, which declared, “In a time when our humanity is challenged by new heights of instability and new waves of antisemitism and ethnic hatred, it is an understatement to say this book is timely.” You can see more of the book’s reception on Amazon — where it is the #1 new release in its category — or at Harper’s website. I hope you will decide to get a copy and to read it!

There will also be several events to mark the book’s publication if you are interested. On January 31, I will be in conversation with the long-time director of the ADL, Abe Foxman, at the Streicker Center in New York. And if you are in Washington this weekend, I will be in dialogue with the president of Freedom House, Michael Abramowitz, at Politics and Prose on January 28. I’ll also be at Books & Books in Miami on February 21. You can also visit my personal website to join the mailing list there for (very occasional) updates. More events will be announced in the coming weeks.

I know this is a community that really values books and I wanted to make sure you were aware of my own! I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

I welcome any and all feedback and comments and look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

Richard