Grow­ing up in New York in the late 1960s, Audrey Birn­baum assumed that watch­ing Holo­caust doc­u­men­taries was a per­fect­ly nor­mal fam­i­ly activ­i­ty. On her first day of ele­men­tary school, Audrey sat in the cafe­te­ria, unwrapped her liv­er­wurst sand­wich, and excit­ed­ly told her new class­mates about her pub­lic tele­vi­sion pro­cliv­i­ties. Her Brady Bunch-watch­ing peers had nev­er heard of PBS, but they had heard of PB&J (and they weren’t too keen on liv­er­wurst either). They made it abun­dant­ly clear: Audrey’s child­hood was, in fact, not nor­mal at all.We will nev­er know whether it was school­yard bul­ly­ing or watch­ing trag­ic Shoah doc­u­men­taries that was respon­si­ble for Audrey’s acute sen­si­tiv­i­ty to oth­ers; but that empa­thy may have helped pave the way for her choice of med­i­cine as a career. Audrey chose to spe­cial­ize in Pedi­atric Gas­troen­terol­o­gy — for who need­ed more help than chil­dren; and where could any­one feel more suf­fer­ing than in one’s gut? Day after day, she watched intri­cate fam­i­ly dynam­ics play out in the con­text of frag­ile health. Audrey lis­tened to each patien­t’s sto­ry until she could retell it with clar­i­ty and give it mean­ing. Through wit­ness­ing and record­ing these ten­der dra­mas, the seeds of writ­ing had been plant­ed. Those seeds took root when, short­ly after her father’s death in 2018, Audrey stum­bled upon his exten­sive notes detail­ing his child­hood escape from Nazi Ger­many. Audrey felt com­pelled to start writ­ing his riv­et­ing sto­ry — a sto­ry address­ing themes that are press­ing­ly rel­e­vant today. Amer­i­can Wolf deals with tragedy and loss, while punc­tu­at­ing the tri­umph of the human spir­it. It is a mem­oir of Holo­caust sur­vival, a fam­i­ly dra­ma, an immi­gra­tion tale, and an often fun­ny com­ing-of-age sto­ry that is sure to have an impact on any­one who has expe­ri­enced prej­u­dice, dis­place­ment, or ques­tions about their iden­ti­ty. With her cher­ished med­ical career in the rear-view mir­ror, Audrey now enjoys singing, writ­ing, read­ing, and being with friends who also had quirky child­hoods. She lives with her hus­band in Westch­ester Coun­ty, New York, and has three mar­velous grown chil­dren. Audrey is cur­rent­ly work­ing on her sec­ond book.