Tom Kando
Dear People:
I just published a second edition of my autobiography.. Much has changed. I removed some inappropriate parts and added several new chapters, to cover the fifteen years that have passed since the book’s first edition.
As it did in the first edition, the book describes my eventful life surviving World War Two in Europe, emigrating to America and building a rich and interesting life in the new world while maintaining a multinational perspective. The book traces my childhood growing up in Hungary, France and Holland. It describes the world events that occurred during my life, and how I experienced and participated in them. It combines biography and history.
I was born at the epicenter of the world’s greatest war. In Hungary, my family survived the Holocaust, the Nazi and Soviet occupations, the bombs, the genocide, and starvation. We escaped to Paris, living in abject poverty as stateless refugees. I roamed the streets, subways and slums, encountered violence and dangerous people. My family kept moving, gypsy-like, from country to country, hitch-hiking and sleeping on public benches and beaches. When I was fourteen, we settled in Amsterdam, where I grew up at risk.
At eighteen, I earned the $50 fare for a one-way ticket on the boat to America, and ten days later I arrived in New York City, not knowing a single soul in the new world. Surviving life-threatening situations, I focused on the Fulbright scholarship which I received, and on admission to one of the country’s finest universities. Soon I learned what the American way of life is all about, the generosity and courage of the American people, the sports, the parties, the hard work and the competitive spirit. For the first time in my life, I became a citizen. After decades of refugee status and discrimination, I became an American. I finally belonged somewhere.
I received a master’s and a PhD at the University of Minnesota. At twenty-seven, I was an Assistant Professor. I spent the following decades teaching at major universities as well as in prisons and for the Air Force, doing research on criminology, mental illness and human sexuality, and traveling to Japan, Australia, Korea, Asia, Africa, Russia and dozens of other countries.
The last seven chapters are new. They cover my writing activities, my widespread travels (I crossed the Atlantic one hundred and one times!) And my sociological analysis of where America and the world are at now. I published several new books, including a science fiction history of earth’s next twenty-five thousand years, and a travel guide to Europe, for which I received a silver medal from the Northern California Publishers and Authors. I also have a blog where I have posted nearly a thousand short pieces about politics, travel, language, sports, popular culture and many other subjects. My travel stories are often eventful and comical. My sociological and political comments cover the good (Obama) and the bad - Trump, Covid, the war in Ukraine, the mass murder plague, racism, the rightward drift in the US and in many other countries.
Here are a few things some readers wrote about the book when it first came out:
◆◆◆ “A tale of survival” says it all. This book deserves an A+ . The book is largely autobiographical, which is hard to grasp, considering the adventurous character of the story. Another proof that real life is often more formidable than fiction. Though it is certainly a tale of survival, the author might have chosen another title too: “Resilience”. For that is the main characteristic that stays in mind of Tom as a boy and a young adult. Despite the numerous setbacks in his youth, Tom seemed to have no trouble picking up his life time and again. The story is captivating from the start 'til the very last page.”
Judy Lohman, writer couple from The Netherlands
◆◆◆ “Tom’s story is an engaging tale that will inspire readers. He touches on so many uncomfortable and realistic themes - marital instability, adultery, pedophilia, poverty, brutality - and he compels the reader to examine his own past. He is confessional, audacious, powerful, and honest, and he offers precisely what is lacking in the book market.” Mary Massaro, Author of Happiness and other lies, Beyond the Pale and other works
To take a look at and possibly obtain this revised and improved autobiography, please click on this link:
Thanks,
