Tell Me Another Morning, a new autobiographical novel by Zdena Berger is causing a stir. Written about Berger's own experience from the point of view of Tania, a teenage girl who is deported from Prague and imprisoned in Terezin and Auschwitz concentration camps, this important book comes to us during the month of Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah). Read an interview with the author below and then go to your local or online bookseller or to www.parispress.org to buy the book (it'll become available in bookstores the beginning of this month) and learn about Tania's life-saving friendships that helped her to survive.

Many powerful books, both fiction and nonfiction (and in between) have been written about the Holocaust. What is most unique about yours?

The relationship between the three girls coming of age in the concentration camps is very unusual.

What would you say was your primary purpose for writing this book?

To share the experiences that we went through—not only I but thousands of others. To make as truthful and powerful a statement about the life in concentrations camps from the perspective of a teenage girl—which had not been done.

I wanted to convey growing up in that atmosphere—the maturing of the character within that framework of the concentration camp, and the relationships between the three girls which is at the core of the story. I've always thought that none of us would have survived if we didn't have each other.

Why did you write the book as a novel rather than a memoir?

I needed to present my story in as honest a way as possible. By calling this new edition “an autobiographical novel” we are now meshing the two true aspects of the book. “Truth” is not only in “facts.” There is truth in fiction, emotional truth. Fiction is an extension of memory.

In reality [the character] Ilsa is based on two girls. I felt that one personality would not have been as strong as the composite of two girls. This illustrates the difference between the “factual” and the “creative fact.”

How much of the book is autobiographical? What is a specific episode that you can point to and say, “It happened just like that”?

All events in the book are based on facts—some that I experienced and some that I witnessed. I did not make up anything.

What, to you, are the most powerful scenes in the book? Is there one episode in particular that you feel stands out?

After sixty years, it is The Safety Pin. It still brings tears to my eyes. That's the one that holds the most emotion for me.

How much is the protagonist, Tania, like you?

She is like me. I tried to have an objective view about her at the time that I wrote the book. Looking back on her now, I find her very passive. I was reading the section “The Circle” last night and thought—I don't understand her. Why didn't she try to persuade the mother? I became almost angry at her. Did she fail in some way to protect her mother? By not taking a stand.

Yes, she was like me and she is a young girl and I tried to remember how I acted and what I thought at that age when I was writing the story. I see her as introspective and timid and she becomes strong as she goes along. She grows up rather fast.

Students may study this book, and readers in book discussion groups will talk about it. What 2 or 3 things would you hope stay with these readers after reading your book?

I hope readers understand that it was possible to survive with dignity. And that the friendship between the girls was truly saving—there was tenacity and there was tenderness between them, and they know they have to support each other without ever talking about it.

Can you say a bit about your writing process—especially as it pertains to this book?

It's such an innermost process. I would remember an incident and start working on it. The writing comes from inside, it is not thought out in an analytical way. There is an urgency and desire to express the feelings surrounding the particular incident, to share it.

Who have been your favorite writers throughout your life?

Flaubert, Balzac, Emily Dickinson, Hemingway, Anthony Powell, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Bowen, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Camus, Colette.

Elie Wiesel talks about bearing witness; he says "Never forget." Simon Wiesenthal said, "For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing." Anne Frank said, "In spite of everything that has happened, I still believe that people are really good at heart." What do you say?

One has to believe that people are basically good because otherwise you would not be able to go on. There is a constant battle between the forces of good and evil. We have to have hope that the good will prevail eventually.