Welcome. It’s 2010 and HIDDEN FALLS has already been around for six years! If this is the first you’ve heard of it, allow me to share with you why I wrote it. I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Norway several times, and I love it. I was blessed to grow up in the U.S. Pacific Northwest with grandparents from Norway and Finland who were a big part of my life. I cherish my memories of them. When I met my husband who grew up in Israel, I was saddened to learn that he never knew his grandparents—they were murdered in the death camps of Europe. Knowing that made the tragedy of the Holocaust much more real to me. Years later, as a freelance journalist and also a fan of mystery and romance, I set out to write a novel (my first and only) that would give me an opportunity to weave a modern day story that drew upon the history shared by both Norwegians and Israelis (and Europeans)—that is the brutality of the Nazis and the impact of World War II on the survivors and succeeding generations.
I’d known about the Norwegian Resistance to the Nazi occupation ever since I was a kid, but very little about the situation of Norwegian Jews at that time. I researched both to understand my older characters. As I wrote HIDDEN FALLS, I brought in “current events” such as the controversial trial in Israel of John Demjanjuk, an alleged concentration camp guard; the brilliant expose of Nazi Eric Priebke by ABC T.V. journalist Sam Donaldson, and also the hopeful Oslo Accords facilitated by Norway between the Israelis and Palestinians. After the tragic assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, I decided my story had to be set in August 1995, when both the peace process and Mr. Rabin were alive and seemingly well. All these events simply served as background to the fictional story, which is still relevant today. I was gratified that a reviewer referred to it as a “travelog” because it was my intention that Norway’s beautiful scenery would provide solace and inspiration for readers. I welcome your comments about HIDDEN FALLS and/or this website. Please write me at carladanziger@yahoo.com. Tusen Takk.
BIOGRAPHY
The granddaughter of Norwegian and Finnish immigrants, Carla Danziger grew up in the U. S. Pacific Northwest and traveled widely before marrying her husband and moving to the East Coast. Carla began writing HIDDEN FALLS while living in Princeton, NJ, where she was a freelance writer and received regional and national awards for her articles. She and her husband have lived in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area since 1993. Carla is past president (2004-2006) of the Washington, DC, chapter of the Women’s National Book Association, a membership organization of publishing professionals (www.wnba-books.org). She is also a member of Sons of Norway (SON) Washington Lodge.
In 2004, Carla published HIDDEN FALLS and officially launched the book at the Washington, DC, SON Lodge bazaar at the International Sons of Norway Convention in Alexandria, VA. In 2008, Hidden Falls was published in large print by Thorndike Press. Carla continues to be invited to speak about her book to a variety of groups.
