Title: Es War Einmal (English translation)
Author: Sister Mary Agnes Theiszmann Pitzer
Year: ????
Media Type: Book
Lending Status: Borrow
How Acquired: ZVA purchase for SGS
Review/Description: Es War Einmal is a historical novel by Sister Mary Agnes Theiszmann Pitzer. She uses her own family history and the historical record to tell the tale of Banat’s colonization. The cast includes a few common people, but many characters are high ranking bureaucrats and their associates. Thus, it deals with some of the politics and administration of the immigration as well as the experiences of the immigrants. I found this book to be overly romanticized and contrived. Young couples would fall madly in love at their first meeting and be married the next day. Readers who prefer fiction to history may enjoy this book with its description of the journey down the Danube, the overland trek, and the danger and hardship of settling a new territory.