I am honored that this elegant sophisticated community is presenting me on their Books and Bagels series.
I have been working for months on the inspiring stories of the itrepid survivors of the Japanese capture of Rabaul.: their improvisation of escape routes, courage, perseverence through sickness and starvation, and pay tribute via photos, read excerpts and videos to those who did not make it.
Lark Force moves me anew: all volunteers, some experienced infantry militia officers, yes, but tailor’s machinists, salesmen, drapers, clerks,doctors, lawyers,, Slvation Army brass band players, confromted the professional Japanese goliath and some made it out.
The battle of Rabaul and its aftermath is lesser known in the USA than in AUstralia, but it proved to be a pivotal action in the Pacific theater of World War II.
Media Contact: Wendy Bayor wendy@cbsrz 860-526-8920
Loretta Goldberg
Beyond the Bukubuk Tree: A World War II Story of Love & Loss
Books & Bagels, Sunday, May 3rd, 1 pm
@ CBSRZ, 55 Kings Highway, Chester CT
Loretta Goldberg, award-winning author and local Chester resident, will be coming to Books & Bagels at Chester’s Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek, on Sunday, May 3rd, at 1 pm, to talk about her novel, Beyond the Bukubuk Tree, and the true events that inspired it.
This is a tale of a little-known stage of World War II’s Pacific Theatre. The port town of Rabaul, New Guinea, known at ‘The Pearl of the Orient’, seemed a backwater to the war raging elsewhere, but as an Australian mandate during a global conflict, that was not to last long. The soldiers of Lark Force, the Australian battalion assigned to Rabaul, would discover how vulnerable and expendable they were when the Japanese launched the inevitable invasion.
Beyond the Bukubuk Tree is the story of those beleaguered Davids/Maccabees pitted not just against the Japanese Goliath but against the merciless jungle environment into which they were forced to flee. Eight of the soldiers in the original company were Jewish; only four survived. But this is not just a war survival story; it is also the compelling story of individuals who must face their own personal demons as surely as they must contend with those on the exterior.
Loretta Goldberg will be talking not only about her book but about Lark Force itself and its actual history. She has a deeply personal connection to this, not just as an Australian but as the niece of one of the real heroes of the story. You will have the opportunity to learn how she went about the considerable research necessary to do justice to these events and the process by which she was able to turn fact into fiction. The result: what PEN called
‘an ambitious and deep historical fiction that brings the Pacific Theater vividly to life while probing questions of love, identity, and moral courage…the novel intertwines personal and political tragedy in a colonial world trembling on the brink of collapse.’
Books & Bagels is free of charge and open to the public, but an RSVP is requested. Respond on the CBSRZ website (CBSRZ.org) or by calling the office (860-526-8920). Light refreshments will be served. After the presentation, a Question and Answer session will be held for the audience, after which books will be available for sale and signing by the author.