Inspired by his mother’s stories, Dennis Andrulis’s Motherlands tells a powerful tale of resilience, transformation, and the quiet courage it takes to begin again.
Growing up on a farm in early twentieth-century Hungary, Irene knows only joy and the deep, enduring love of her grandmother.
Their bond sustains them through the First World War, until a letter arrives summoning twelve-year-old Irene to join her long-absent mother in America. Compelled to leave behind the only home she’s ever known, Irene is thrust into an alien world and a perilous relationship with her embittered mother.
As she learns to navigate her new life, Irene must choose whether to hold on to the spirit and warmth that shaped her or be consumed by her mother’s broken dreams.
Irene’s story is a moving portrait of the immigrant experience, of dreams deferred, identities reshaped, and the enduring hope for love and belonging in a new land.
“Motherlands by Dennis Andrulis is a powerful story of one young woman’s emigration and assimilation from Hungary to the United States at the end of World War I. . . . More than just a tribute to the author’s mother, this is an exceptional read and a fascinating adventure. I highly recommend it.”
–Readers’ Favorite
“Self-love overcomes trauma in this powerful mother-daughter saga.”
–Booklife Reviews
“I thoroughly enjoyed Dennis Andrulis’s rich and complex historical novel Motherlands. . . . Andrulis deftly portrays not only two vastly different cultures, but also two vastly different human beings — a stern, demanding, and embittered mother and a daughter seeking her own independent identity in post-World War One New York. The result is a work of fiction that evokes the sights and sounds of a long-gone era and the tensions between two clashing generations of transplanted Americans.”
–Tim O’Brien
Motherlands is a compelling and beautiful read. The carefully-woven story floats the reader along through the journey of a young girl from an old home to a new one…with beautiful turns of phrase that absorb the reader. It submerges the reader in the pain of migration and the resulting physical and emotional separation of families, yet forefronts the soaring joy of adventure and new life that comes with arrival in an unknown land. [T]he book reminds us yet again of the incredible capacity of newcomers to the United States to become one with this country and to contribute in unexpected ways.
–Denise Gilman
About the Author
Dennis Andrulis is an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written for the Huffington Post and published nonfiction on the costs of the AIDS epidemic, race and culture, and the intersection of health and society—a lifelong dedication inspired by his mother’s immigrant experience and work in social services.
A founding board member of Texas Performing Arts, Dennis has long been an active supporter of the arts in the Austin community. In a former life, he worked as an amateur chef for a catering service in college. When he’s not biking, reading, writing, or teaching, you can usually find him in the kitchen—or the wine room—preparing meals for his family and friends. Motherlands is his first novel.
