An aspiring writer and reporter, Karol Nielsen went trekking through the Peruvian Andes at the height of the Shining Path terror, looking for adventure and a good story. She found Aviv, an Israeli traveler fresh out of his mandatory military service—a war-weary veteran of the first intifada—dreaming about peace. Black Elephants follows this idealistic pair as they explore the Americas, until Aviv, inexorably drawn to his homeland, asks Karol to come with him to Israel. There, the couple’s lovingly laid plans—for Aviv to attend university, and for Karol to work on a kibbutz, study Hebrew, and get to know his family—are suddenly tested by the eruption of the first Gulf War. Nielsen’s memoir paints a poignant and harrowing picture of love during wartime. Against a backdrop of bursting bombs and air-raid sirens, gas masks and sealed rooms, relationships are frayed, and romance becomes a distant memory. This story, so candidly and clearly told, powerfully illustrates the terror, loneliness, and absurdity of war and its invisible casualties.
KAROL NIELSEN is a journalist, essayist, and poet. Her memoir, Black Elephants (Bison Books, 2011) was selected as a New and Noteworthy Book by Poets & Writers and shortlisted for the 2012 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing by the Stanford University Libraries. Excerpts were honored as Notable Essays in The Best American Essays in 2010 and 2005, guest edited by Christopher Hitchens and Susan Orlean.
Black Elephants, a bestselling title for her publisher, also has been praised and promoted by the Christian Science Monitor, Connecticut Post, Daily Brink, Greenwich Time, Forward, Jewish Book Council, Kirkus Reviews, Stamford Advocate, Women's Voices for Change, and others. Her memoir has been selected for book clubs at the Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Philadelphia, New Canaan Library in Connecticut, and elsewhere.
Her chapbook, This Woman I Thought I'd Be (Finishing Line Press, 2012), was selected for the Women's Voices for Change New Year's poetry books list. Her complete collection was a finalist for the Colorado Prize for Poetry in 2007. She has contributed to The Moment (Harper Perennial, 2012), an anthology edited by Smith Magazine. It has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, Interview Magazine, NPR, and Salon.
Find praise and press at
karolnielsen.com/Book and karolnielsen.com/Press
PRAISE FOR BLACK ELEPHANTS
Shortlist -- William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, 2012
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New and Noteworthy Book -- Poets & Writers, 2011
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Excerpts selected as Notable Essays -- The Best American Essays 2010 and 2005
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Guest blogger -- Jewish Book Council and the Forward
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Holiday book list -- Women's Voices for Change
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"...poetic...filled with idealism and adventure." -- Kirkus Reviews
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"...moving and thought-provoking." -- Betty Shays, Christian Science Monitor
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"...engrossing." -- Inspired Writers Series, Fairfield University Bookstore
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"Karol Nielsen presents a complex love story for our time, one that plumbs the depths of war and terror while exploring the impact of violence on the human psyche and relationships. Black Elephants is forthright, searching, wistful, and full of heart." -- Sonya Huber, author of Opa Nobody, Stanford University William Saroyan International Prize for Writing finalist
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"Impeccably researched and luminous in its attention to detail, this memoir is a devastating memorial to peace." -- Kaylie Jones, author of Lies My Mother Never Told Me, Vogue season's best memoirs
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"In a world that continues to bleed from the wounds of intolerance, here comes a love story with the power to heal." -- Michael Soussan, author of Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy, Wall Street Journal standout selection
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"From the keen, algid air of the Andes, to the rain of Scuds falling on Israel during the first Gulf War and the bustling pressures of New York, Karol Nielsen's Black Elephants is a spare, harrowing memoir." -- Gregory Crouch, author of Enduring Patagonia, Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection
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"You will be moved." -- Mary Tabor, author of (Re)Making Love
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"She's the real deal." -- Elizabeth Eslami, author of Bone Worship
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"I very much enjoyed your story, your crisp, spare prose pulling me into the international narrative of love." -- Cullen Thomas, author of Brother One Cell, bestseller
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"Reading Karol Nielsen's words is like talking to a friend, a very well-traveled, generous-hearted and deeply reflective friend." -- Anna Kushner, translator of Guillermo Rosales's The Halfway House, Goncalo M. Tavares's Jerusalem, and other works
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"As an adventurer this book left me nostalgic, for the risks we take in the name of soul-inspired impulse, and how we not only would take those risks again but dream to later transcend them to the universal, to art, as Nielsen has done here. " -- Hafeez Lakhani, PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellow
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"...a piece of true contemporary literature." -- John Maciuika, author of Before the Bauhaus
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"...vivid." -- Chris Lombardi, author of the forthcoming, I Ain't Marchin' Anymore
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"The writer reveals her inner most feelings on love, marriage, family, the loss of friends, and religion." -- Joe Tully, essayist
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"...a clear, thoughtful voice addressing heartache and war without sentimentality. Cerebral, vivid." -- Meera Lee Sethi, essayist
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"She did us the great favor and compliment of letting us figure it out for ourselves...The result is a much more powerful message." -- Eulalie, Amazon reader
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"...an amazing, riveting tale!" -- Sharon F., Amazon reader
