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    No One is Here Except All of Us
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    No One is Here Except All of Us
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    No One is Here Except All of Us
    Audiobook11 hours

    No One is Here Except All of Us

    Written by Ramona Ausubel

    Narrated by Laural Merlington

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them. Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years, but now, there is nowhere else to go. At the suggestion of an eleven-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, and soon our narrator - the girl, grown into a young mother - must flee her village to find her husband and save her children, and propel them toward a real and hopeful future.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateFeb 28, 2012
    ISBN9781611206753
    Unavailable
    No One is Here Except All of Us
    Author

    Ramona Ausubel

    Ramona Ausubel is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of No One Is Here Except All of Us. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, One Story, The Paris Review Daily, Best American Fantasy, and elsewhere, and has received special mentions in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been longlisted for The Frank O'Connor Short Story Prize, and a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions award and the Pushcart Prize.

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    Reviews for No One is Here Except All of Us

    4/5

    29 ratings30 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Interesting story/fable. beautifully written, while also frustrating and at times infuriating. The first half struck me as almost whimsical, lyrical,dream-like, the second half was more realistic and disturbing. 5/6 of the way thru I was very angry at the author and her characters, but by the end I felt she won me back by bringing the story to a more optimistic but not fairy-tale conclusion.
    • 5/5
      “There is always a story. No matter what we do, it can’t help but unfold.”No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel is the most moving book I have read in a long time.I grabbed it from the library after Leah @ Books Speaks Volumes raved about it, and I was not disappointed.The small Romanian village of Zalischik is isolated from the rest of the country geographically. When a stranger is found, still alive, in their river, with a horrific tale of WWII tragedy, the town takes 11-year-old Lena’s advice to begin the world again. What does this mean? The villagers ban together, “forget” and get rid of old world things, and start their lives over.This leads to some wonderful and some very tragic experiences.For the full review, visit Love at First Book
    • 4/5
      I read this book months ago and then promptly misplaced it and forgot to write the review. So here it is months later. I wish I had written this review right after finishing the book because I remember having so much to say about it! I still really love the book, but I wish I could remember some of the details that stood out to me. I know I adored the writing. Ausubel is a fantastic writer. If you iffy about the story, then read it for the writing.As for the story, I actually had to put this book down a few times because I knew what future laid ahead for the villagers. It is so sad because they basically are in a state of denial about WWII and what is happening to other Jewish people and could happen to them. The way that this story is told makes it seem very quiet, simple, but it's really so much more than that. I really loved how Lena was the one who started the imaginary world, but also ended up being the one who realized that it just wasn't going to work for forever. I highly recommend this book. Like I said above, there was so much I wanted to discuss in my review, but I waited too long to right the review so now I can't remember much :( But you will not be disappointed.
    • 2/5
      I was drawn to reading this novel because of the title. No One is Here Except All of Us just had this beautiful, lyrical ring to it. It's the kind of title for a novel that I think, what a perfect fit. And it was, it was just too bad I couldn't get into what was held between the cover.No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel had all the trappings of a book I love. It was set during WWII and in a location that I haven't read as much about so I certainly went in excited to see how it would all turn out. Unfortunately much like the title, that which was contained within was written more like a poem so I found myself re-reading passages over and over again to make sure that I was getting the message.The book centers around a small village of Jewish families who have been forgotten by everyone around them. They know that a horrible war is brewing in the big world but since no one really knows about this hidden village it doesn't really affect them. But then, one day, the river brings with it all kinds of debris and in that debris is a young woman who tells a horrifying tale of the war brewing without. The villagers get it into their mind to start completely over. If they wipe their slate clean and act like they are the only people in the world then the horrible things won't find them. It seems like a good idea except, for me, it just seemed like a bunch of adults pretending and the things that they did were sometimes uncomfortable for me to read about.I think if you are a fan of poetry or are better able to suspend belief you will probably get more out of No One is Here Except All of Us. For me, it was just too fantastical for me to get behind.
    • 4/5
      A lyrical, haunting story. A small village of Jews tried to recreate their world and start over. The biblical symbolism and references aboynd, especially in the beginning. Rain and floods and stars are significant motifs. Of course they are unable to keep the "old world" away and it storms back in. Another significant motif is that of parenthood. What happens to Lena happens to her own son. Her husband is pirated away (Joseph?) She is essentially sold away (Hagar?) and starts over too. Yes, it is "another" WWII story, but original and based on truth. Stories are everything, as the book reiterates.
      Worth reading.
    • 5/5
      It took me a while to get into this book – partly because it wasn’t what I expected, partly because I feared that a book set in World War II would be emotionally harrowing. It was, it wasn’t, it didn’t matter after a while because the superb language swept me up and away into the story. Not your average tale-telling, but utterly riveting and rich in emotional depth.
    • 4/5
      Ramona Ausubel's debut novel is set in a tiny Romanian village at the outbreak of WWII in 1939. The Jewish villagers, though fearful of the spreading destruction, are counting on their isolation to keep them safe. That is, until a strange woman washes up on the river bank outside the town. The mysterious woman had seen the burning of her own village and the murder of everyone dear to her before escaping into the life-saving water. Privately thinking the woman will be their savior, the village people take her in and fearfully discuss what to do next. At the suggestion of the Stranger and the 11-year-old girl named Lena, who narrates the story, the villagers decide to create a new world for themselves, leaving the old one of war and fear behind.Of course, starting the world over is not as simple as it seemed. Questions ensue as to what objects belong in the new world: when deciding to record prayers, the villagers wonder, “do we know about ink?” When the first marriage occurs, they question, “do we know about rings?” In the re-ordering of their society, spouses are swapped, and Lena is taken from her family and given to her uncle, whose wife is barren. (“You have some children and we have none,” he says).The villagers cease leaving the village to trade, and they stop sending and receiving mail. They focus on telling their new stories, recording their prayers and creating constellations in their new temple. The Stranger becomes their prophet, accepting and recording their prayers without ever truly belonging to the village. Withdrawing into their own world works for a few years, during which Lena marries and starts a family, but it ultimately cannot keep the advancing armies at bay. Axis powers eventually find the village, and Lena’s husband is taken prisoner. After another period of quiet, the village is attacked and Lena must flee to save her family.I really enjoyed this book. The way it was written is really beautiful, reflecting the rich storytelling tradition of Eastern Europe and the biblical stories repeated by the Jews of the novel. The pages are permeated with haunting observations and dreamy images.The novel speaks of themes such as remembrance and identity. As the world of the villagers starts anew, Lena struggles with her memories of her life before the world began and with her new role as a daughter to different parents. My heart ached for the confusion she felt as to who she was and who she was supposed to be.I found this to be a beautiful and harrowing tale of a young girl trying to survive in a rapidly changing world. The novel thoughtfully weaves together myth and the reality of war into a lovely, somnolent, narrative filled with dreamy descriptions and heartrending loss. I particularly loved the ending, in which the story comes full circle and Lena becomes a Stranger to a new group of people. However, unlike the Stranger in her village, I think she will be able to become more a part of her new home and possibly regain some of what she has lost.“No One Is Here Except All of Us” is a great winter-time read; its soft, quiet tone accompanied by a constant cold drizzle, makes it perfect for reading while curled beneath a warm blanket with a cup of tea on a cold winter (or early spring, depending where you live) day.More book reviews at Books Speak Volumes.
    • 4/5
      I will be honest. My first thought on reading the synopsis of this book was "that idea is a bit far-fetched." But then I realised that I didn't live in that time, and I don't know what it must have been like to face the possible idea of your people being annihilated. As I read, I found how desperate the people of the village were to stay alive in their remote corner of the world. I can hardly blame them for trying to start again. At some point in our lives I would say most of us had a moment when we wanted to start all over again.The story, the prose, the writing is beautiful, almost like poetry - it moved me and shook me up and at times, I found my heart breaking just a little, like in moments where Lena asked "how old am I?"An easy 4 stars.
    • 5/5
      Twice while reading this book, I found myself sobbing. That's the first sign I have that it's a good book. I'm not often moved to tears by things I read.

      The cadence of the words of this book stick with me when I've closed the covers, and that's another way I know it's good.

      But "good" isn't quite right. It's beautiful and horrible. It leaves me feeling both shattered and reassembled.

      It's a story about the stories we tell ourselves and how those stories have to change as the world changes. The stories shift and are remade as we live them; elements repeat themselves without our invitation, their meaning altered with time and circumstance. In the end all we have to give any shape at all to the muddle of events of the world is the stories we tell. We cling to them and tell them over and over again until they become prayers we can tell one another in the dark.

      Somehow, Ausubel manages to tell a story that is both hopeless and hopeful, both an ending and a beginning (and another ending and a beginning and again and again after that). She skips nimbly over the facts to the emotions underneath and demonstrates that fiction can do a better job than facts of revealing truth.

      This book leaves me wanting to hug my children close and shield them from the world, even as I know that my job is to send them off to discover their own beautiful, horrible stories (which I hope will be much more beautiful than horrible).
    • 4/5
      The story is not new, though that does not make it less remarkable. It has happened to many other peoples, too, which is something important to remember, and again, that does not make this less remarkable.

      There is a lot that Ausubel does subtly, I thought at first, but towards the end, I felt like those subtleties became screaming repetitions. All is told in a lyrical, rambling, strange narrative form, which I liked, but I can't say everyone will. There is a story here, there is a beginning, many beginnings, there is myth and tale, there are people, real ones, and imagined, familiar and strange. There is laughter, death, hunger, forgetting, remembering, a forest, a mattress... There is all of that, which fits well in the river of narration that Ausubel produces. Sometimes, it would have served well to tighten up the story. Overall, the effect is undeniably meditative.

      I would not recommend this book to those who need a lot of historical facts or action packed sequences. It is certainly for those who can savor slow developments, some wandering narration, and strange stories of wartime.
    • 2/5
      This is rather a strange book. It borders on fantasy, although the message is important.
    • 5/5
      This strange story has the magical charm of a fairytale and the twisted, dark slant of a Gothic tragedy. In 1939, the villagers of a tiny Romanian town are horrified to learn, upon the arrival of a stranger, that the winds of war are sweeping toward them. For centuries, they have prided themselves on avoiding such trouble, tucked away in the forgotten wilderness. Lena, an eleven year old girl, suggests that the adults simply pretend that the war isn't happening. Her simple statement takes hold, and before long, the village proposes that they do just that. They declare that the world will begin anew. Starting now, time will start. There has been nothing before. Whoever they were before, never was.Roles in the town are shuffled about, husbands find themselves suddenly free of quarrelsome wives who they now "never married," and children find themselves given away to new parents. One of these children is Lena, who finds herself shoved into the strange home of her Aunt Kayla and Uncle Hersh.Aunt Kayla, who has had dismal luck with children of her own, takes Lena in as her new baby. As time has just begun and Lena is a child, Kayla takes in the notion that Lena must "re-grow" all over again, making her into an infant.Her stubborn treatment of Lena as if she were a helpless newborn is at first comical, but it quickly shifts into something creepily disturbing. Lena longs to be loved for who she really is, is confused by the shifting world around her, aches for her real family, and feels betrayed at their sending her away. It was heartbreaking, all told in the naive, simple narrative of a child's voice.For years, the town's pretend world of Eden is sustained by their healthy imaginations. But eventually, the carefully constructed untruth that they have been clinging to is shattered, as we knew it inevitably would.Lena - now a bit older, married, and a mother herself - is forced to flee the only home she has ever known, and is thrown into a cruel world she knows nothing about.I would not recommend this book to everyone. It is certainly dark and strange, even disturbing. In one scene, Lena is raped lying on top of her deceased baby's bones, all written in lovely prose, the delicate description of the moonlight a stark contrast to the scene unfolding.This book was sad in the most beautiful way. Written in lyrical, poetic prose, even the darkest of scenes were fascinatingly gorgeous. Ausubel is a gifted writer, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
    • 5/5
      I took a long, long time to read this book. Partially this was because, after having a baby, it was hard for me to find time to read actual printed books - I read almost exclusively on my Nook these days, because I can manage it one handed while nursing. But the real reason that I lingered so long over this novel is because I found it excruciating to read. It is beautifully written, imaginative and poetic, but the story is deeply painful. From the narrator's transfer from her parents' house to that of her aunt and uncle, to her child marriage to another child forced to grow up too quickly, to the loss of far too many babies and children (not to mention adults and entire villages), this novel had me tearing up virtually every time I opened it. And so I read it in small doses, taking in as much as I could handle and then pausing for weeks at a time before picking up the narrative threads. I will reread this novel at some point when I am less vulnerable to the devastation this story contains, more able to appreciate the storytelling itself and the hope inherent in a novel of survival.
    • 3/5
      There?s something almost magical about this book. With Hitler?s army barring down on them, the residents of a remote Jewish village in Romania decide to reset the world and start over from the beginning. Relationships are reset; our narrator, an eleven-year-old girl, is reassign to another family to be their daughter, to be their baby. Genesis begins anew. For a while the dream manages to sustain them. The young girl grows up and becomes a wife and mother. Yet like all good dreams, the residents are forced to wake up and face the new world, and the younger mother must flee to save herself, her children, and her husband.The same magic surrounding this book is what keeps the reader so distant. This new world is built for the eleven-year-old girl, for her aunt and uncle, for her parents and neighbors. It is not for the reader and while I always felt that sense of magic surrounding me, I never could catch hold of these characters.This is especially true after Lena and the others go one the run. I lost track of them, lost my footing along the way. The psychological damage inflicted on Lena, our narrator, even before the war warps her perception of reality. An eleven-year-old forced to be a baby? A twelve-year-old who marries and becomes a mother? She?s wrapped up in her own naivety because she?s still a child.Yet all the characters have a warped perception, all of them are naive, and it?s hard to keep track of people who are referred to by their occupation rather than names or personalities. The book is foggy. The end is bittersweet.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful book about the power of imagination in the face of horrific reality.
    • 4/5
      This is a beautifully written book that gives a very different look at World War II and the Holocaust. The story centers on a small village in Romania where the horrors of the war filter in bit by bit. Determined to keep the violence and upheaval out of their own lives, the villagers agree to isolate themselves by purposefully ignoring the outside world. They rebuild their lives, their relationships, what they think and know and believe, in order to create a sort of bubble of protection from what is taking place in the surrounding countries. Naturally, as time passes, this proposal proves ineffective as the real world gradually encroaches and forces the villagers to accept what is taking place--especially the young girl who had proposed the isolation in the first place. Now grown, she must brave the world outside the village in order to restore the most important aspects of her life.This story had a wonderful fairy-tale quality to it that really drew me in. In addition, it was intriguing to see life during this period in Romania, which is not a country one often reads about in the wealth of available WWII fiction.
    • 5/5
      Publisher's description:In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them. Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years- across oceans, deserts, and mountains-but now, it seems, there is nowhere else to go. Danger is imminent in every direction, yet the territory of imagination and belief is limitless. At the suggestion of an eleven-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. Destiny is unwritten. Time and history are forgotten. Jobs, husbands, a child, are reassigned. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, eventually overtaking it, and soon our narrator-the girl, grown into a young mother-must flee her village, move from one world to the next, to find her husband and save her children, and propel them toward a real and hopeful future.I had to use the publisher's description of No One Is Here Except All Of Us because it was such an unusual book; I was having a hard time summarizing it in my own words. It took me a while to get used to the style in which this book is written. The story is told in the style of a fable or folktale. Things happen that aren't entirely realistic and people speak in stilted, simple sentences. Once I accepted this book for what it was, I really enjoyed it. The prose is wonderful and descriptive - heartbreaking at times and dryly funny in some places. Once I got used to the style, I found the flow of words almost relaxing in a way. Even though some terrible things happened, it was presented in a calm manner. It's so hard for me to explain. You'll have to read it for yourself and let me know if you felt the same way. I highly recommend that you do!
    • 4/5
      No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel is a lyrical and surprising book about the Holocaust. A strange woman washes up on the river-shore of an isolated Romanian village, and in the story of how she arrived there, simultaneously embodies the promise of future destruction and hope. Clinging to hope, the town decides to begin their history anew, reinventing their world item by item, relationship by relationship, ritual by ritual. In doing so, they willfully turn away not only from the violence of World War II but from its existence. But will it be enough? If an entire town pretends to be invisible, will it be? Told from alternating perspectives, but primarily through eyes of a young girl, this is an unusual and vivid story about identity and the defining power of narrative. What is the essence of self? What does it mean to be a survivor? What does it mean to move through the world continually stripped of one identity after another? Inspired by events in her own family history, these are the questions Ausubel asks over and over. This is a book that reframes the Holocaust story in a fresh and hauntingly visual way.
    • 5/5
      Where do you go when the world collapses around you, when war forces you to go where you never thought you could? For Lena in Ramona Ausubel’s delovely No One is Here Except All of Us, Lena turns to her imagination and invites her family and village to help create their escapist world based solely on Faith. The year is 1939 and 9-year-old Lena lives in a small Romanian town on a peninsula in the middle of a destructing world. She is Jewish and her Faith is about to be tested. As news of horrible tragedy seeps into the village, the members decide to abandon the world beyond theirs. Landlocked, they trade their way for a willing close-mindedness. Following Lena's suggestion, they ignore the world beyond their village and create the world from what they want. Everything that existed before that morning is no more. The one thing that remains? Faith. Like their ancestors, Faith will guide them and care for them. Without Faith, everything else is meaningless. With Faith, their lives will be acceptable. SPOILER ALERT: Some readers may consider the following words a plot giveaway. However, the author's message of faith occurs in her metaphors and not, in my opinion, the story incidents:The villagers reassess their lives and relationships, trading spouses, careers, children, and old ways for a system that will accommodate their new world. A new temple is constructed with elements of their new lives. Technology and communication with a world at war is abandoned. The barter system works, as long as the reader doesn't probe too deep. Like a child's imagination, the believers hold their world together by ignoring the lessons of the past. In an absurdist world, Lena is traded to a family who wants a baby of their own. Although Lena is a pre-teen, she is directed to act like a baby until she is told to grow. Lena pretends to grow again, to learn to talk and sing and act like a girl until she is promptly promised to a boy. They marry and have children. They live inside their bubble as the world collapses around them. Time is discounted and unchecked. In a world where nothing makes sense, where Jews are to be exterminated for being peaceful Jews, Absurdism is all that remains. The threat is as real today as it was in 1939. It is absurd to find a woman washed on the riverbank and decide to keep her, to task her as the record keeper of their new way. It is absurd to believe she would remain. It is absurd to give up your children to another family who won't love them like you do. It is absurd to marry a person who sleeps 23 1/2 hours a day. It is absurd, sadly, to live in a world with only Faith. Yet, when the world is small, when the way to unify the participants is as simple as crying out in a howl, a tribe can be a powerful unifier. No One Is Here Except All of Us, the howl says. We are alone together. We are our own pack. We are who we are. Howl.Inevitably, the world breaks in. Families are broken and scattered to the compass directions. Lena's husband is captured, her child dies, her son is traded to a Russian family for a train ticket, and Lena goes along meekly, with Faith as a crutch. Because she trusts, she does what is best for her family, which is not what's best for them. Lena is childlike at heart. Her decisions are well-intentioned and, sadly, they are not what is best for her family. Her childlike decisions are all she can muster. Yet all of us make mistakes. While Lena is running from the war, she does not know the war has ended. She ends up in America, pushed by the winds of inevitability. "I am not in charge of my own fate," Lena's husband says. In America, Lena gives birth to a baby the product of a passive rape. With birth, the cycle of Faith continues. Lena's story, like a modern day parable, is poetic and grounded in a belief larger than herself. Life will continue as long as you believe. 4 1/2 Stars out of 5. Poetic, fantastical, Faith-oriented, creative, focused, pretty. Terry Banker
    • 4/5
      First they see bomber planes fly over their houses at the beginning of WWII. Then a refugee who threw herself into the river after seeing her husband and children killed washes up on their riverbank. Aghast at what they learn from her, this small village of 102 people decide that the best way to avoid the horror that was clearly coming was to create their own world. They already live on a peninsula, so only one small spot on the river needs to be hidden and they can start anew. That is indeed what they do, but it isn't as easy as it seemed. It forces some pretty crazy realignments involving commerce and family/social arrangements. It even changes their religion. But, alas, the past cannot be completely erased, and they could not hide forever.This is a very odd but engrossing tale about dreams, reality, memory, community, family, love, faith, survival and, above all, storytelling. The ugly and the beautiful are both presented in a quiet, simple prose that hides the profundity of its message. At times it can take your breath away with all the innocence and awfulness mixing together. There are parts of this novel that will haunt me for a long, long time. More so because I know that this story is based on the author's family history. In short, this is an amazing book.
    • 4/5
      No one can deny that Ramona Ausubel is an amazing storyteller. She crafts a tale out of her own family history in a heart-wrenching fashion. As with another reviewer, some of the characters could have been drawn out more, such as with The Stranger. However, this narrative is about the story as much as, or more perhaps, than it's actors - the characters. This book is about their story, of which they were willing (and in some cases unwilling) participants. Life is like that. Events overshadow and take over our lives, making it seem as if we are not in control. In order to have this control, or at least the illusion of it, some people take extreme measures in order to deal with the hardships and tragedies they are facing. I'm not sure how much more I want to say about the story, as it really should be read, and discerned individually as each person, dependent upon their life experiences, may see something different that resonates with them. Some may be disturbed, but considering the setting, it cannot be avoided. As I was explaining to someone, this is not a read that should be undertaken lightly. This is a book that will leave a lasting impression and must be read deliberately in order to get the most out of it. And I recommend that this effort be made. It's worth it.
    • 4/5
      When there is physically nowhere left to run, when you’ve been chased and persecuted to the corners of the earth, the only refuge left is in story. The members of a small, rural Jewish village in Romania are terror-struck when news of an impending war reaches them. Having nowhere else to run, they decide to live in story, creating their world anew as if it is just beginning. Each person can be whoever they want; even some families change composition along the way as the new world is born. The novel is beautifully written with rich descriptions. Some parts of it did feel a bit slow, and there was not as much character development as I would have liked. There were so many characters, that the chances to know their experiences and feelings in depth were few and far between especially in the earlier part of the novel. I suppose this may be because the novel is really about the collective impact of history, but those such as myself who highly value extensively developed characters may be a bit put off by this aspect.The strength of the novel is its ability to put the reader into the history and allow him or her to vicariously experience the emotions of the characters. Because the reader does get to know the characters (even if not on an incredibly deep level), and to feel at home in their cozy, insulated village, the reader feels and experiences the shock when the real world intrudes. Nothing has an impact as when it happens to people you “know,” and in this way the author does a brilliant job of bringing the heartbreaking personal impact of the Holocaust into sharp relief. There were moments of this story that brought me to tears, and while I would have liked more character development, the story still managed to pull me in. The most touching aspect for me was the undying resilience of this community, who refused to become victims and lived on their own terms even in the face of unimaginable horror. Most importantly, the novel brings to life a part of history that should never be dismissed or forgotten, and it’s well worth reading.
    • 4/5
      In a small village in Romania, a group of Jewish residents lived in relative harmony. Their village was on a small peninsula where a tiny strip of land connected it to the mainland. One evening, as they gathered for prayer, they witnessed a plane bomb the other side of the mountain. War had finally arrived in their corner of Romania. Bewildered, they weren't sure what to do. They had read newspapers and heard radio reports about Jews being rounded up and sent to camps. Fearing the same fate, the village listened to the voice of a 11-year-old girl, Lena, who suggested they just start over - to wake up the next day to a new world. And for more than three years, this tactic successfully protected them from the atrocities of World War II.It takes a tremendous suspension of belief to read No One Is Here Except All Of Us. You, as the reader, must commit to the characters' idea that the village was reborn into a new world. Families were switched around, time was of no consequence and the village managed to stay self-sufficient and untouched until almost the end of the war. Thankfully, Ausubel is a gifted writer with a knack for creating realistic characters, especially the story's main character, Lena. Most of the story is told from Lena's perspective - a young woman who endures more than one should.Admittedly, I had an easier time reading the novel once the village had to break out of its safe cocoon, though I was saddened that their experiment couldn't protect them any longer. When the villagers realized the war had arrived at their doorstep, my heart broke for each person.No One Is Here Except For All Of Us will not be for every reader. It has a poetic feel with simple storytelling that may annoy readers. True realists should stay away from this book completely. But for some of you - the dreamers, the imagineers - this book will works its magic. To you, I recommend No One Is Here Except For All Of Us unreservedly.
    • 4/5
      The people in a small, secluded village in Romania don't want to think about the war going on around them. Instead, they all come to the decision that they will start life fresh and leave all knowledge of the outside world behind them. The villagers all pretend together that their world is new. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around this storyline. I mean really, a whole village is going to play pretend for the rest of their lives? I put the book down and moved on to another. But I kept thinking about Ausubel's characters and I just had to pick the book up again. The characters are strong and likable and that makes the unusual storyline easier to swallow. I'm so glad I picked this book back up and finished it.
    • 4/5
      “You cannot find peace by avoiding life,” wrote author Virginia Woolf.The time - 1939. The place - a small village in Romania. The residents of the village are hearing news of the war that is spreading across the globe, and when a stranger washes up on the shores of their river, the villagers learn firsthand how dreadful things are “out there.” They decide to re-invent the world, to create an insular place that is safe from the war. For years, guided by the strength of their denial and their imagination, they abide peacefully. Not even the best-laid plans, though, can stop the forward march of war, and the novel crashes to a heartbreaking collision with reality.“No One is Here Except All of Us” is a fabulist story that requires a suspension of disbelief to be fully enjoyed. It is not meant to be logical or truthful, but instead conveys a thematic moral about reality versus illusion. The writing is poetic, casting a soporific spell that captures the reader in a sea of dreaminess. The author deftly tells the story from multiple viewpoints, and the pacing is both languorous and compelling. And what reader doesn't identify with that longing to be like an ostrich with its head in the sand, ignoring a problem in the hope that it will vanish?I enjoyed every second I spent with this book, and its profound message is one that will stay with me. Ausubel’s debut novel is unlike any other book I have ever read, and is a stunning achievement that I highly recommend.
    • 3/5
      This book chronicled the life and lives of a small community of Jews in Romania during WWII. They live on an island surrounded by a river and one day after a bombing mostly blocks their one access route to/from their community, they decide it might be better to act as if they know nothing of the world outside their island: nothing of racist hatred, nothing of war, nothing of even the most base technology of the time like a radio (that would connect them to the outside world). The story that follows is one of life, both singular and community, and what one is willing to give up if it means the betterment of their species.
    • 4/5
      [This review is of the pre-publication uncorrected proof]When Lena’s village takes in a stranger, a survivor of a military assault on a nearby village, the small, isolated Jewish community decides to invent a new world, shutting out the frightening possibilities of the 1939 fascist Eurpope that has grown up around them. Ausubel gives “No One is Here Except All of Us” an overarching sense not so much of a fairy tale, but of the myths, legends, and truths of oral tradition.Wonderful prose, a captivating story, and ghosts that will stay with you long after you finish this novel. Ausubel’s voice threatens to overwhelm the story at times, but the story is strong enough to hold its own as the writing soars above. Os.
    • 5/5
      Ramona Ausubel's "No One Is Here Except All Of Us" is a beautifully written masterpiece that combines war and imagination to create a magical world of life, love, and the intense questions of who we would chose to be if we could start over from the beginning. This story transports the reader to a sort of dreamlike state where reality takes a back-seat to everything else that can possibly be imagined and where memories both save and destroy. It is a story of a story where remembering the story of the beginning of the world is the most important thing. One girl lives many lives. Daughter. Daughter. Wife. Mother. Mother. Mother. And everyone around her is reborn and remembered and their story is told so the beginning of their world will never be forgotten. This is the story of how words and kindness can overcome all obstacles while a war can mean nothing if you can hide from it long enough. It’s about how people can save each other and simultaneously mean nothing and everything to the same person. It’s about hope and despair, life and death, earth and stars. If this story fails at anything it is defining any aspect of its characters’ existence because in the end it is about how you are you no matter what happens or how much things change or how long you live. You are you and your story will always be remembered by those who love you.
    • 2/5
      Readers who love Nicole Krauss should rejoice and make a beeline for the debut by Ramona Ausubel. Her novel, "No One is Here Except All of Us" employs the same rich language and imaginative plotting that Krauss is renowned for. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of either writer. I continue to feel that both women sacrifice plot for what I call "look at me" writing. Yes, the language is lyrical but it overwhelms and smothers the story.I will leave it to reviewers such as esta1923 to provide interested LT members with an excellent overview of Ausubel's story. As for me I tip my hat to the author for her effort but will pass this book on to someone else.
    • 5/5
      "No One is Here Except All of Us" by Ramona Ausubel is a stunning novel. Its material is true, its author is young (see her on You Tube), and readers will be well rewarded for time spent with “all of us.”Readers of different ages will have vastly different points of reference to events that began in 1939. Regardless of that, all can marvel at the adjustments made by this group of people to nearly impossible conditions imposed upon them by history and geography.I admit to being swept away. Although I have nine pages of notes (some with double stars) I am reluctant to include them here. Ausubel’s re-telling of family history merits your attention whatever you may already know about the world in time of war. Survival, for them, depended on imagination as well as on circumstance. We are fortunate that she had a living link to the people whose endurance won them a future against overwhelming odds.