Arts & Entertainment

Local Author to Speak on Inspiring Story of Friendship

Shorewood resident Lisa Paul's new book dives in her battle with a unsympathetic Soviet Union government and fight to help her sick friend.

“It’s a story about a friendship… living with hope and strength during a very challenging time,” Lisa Paul said.

Paul is referring to her new book, "Swimming in the Daylight: An American Student, A Soviet Jewish Dissident, and the Gift of Hope," released this month.

It's the true story of her battle against the Soviet Union government, in the early 1980s, in a effort to help her friend fighting cancer. She will speak at a book launch event at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N. Murray Ave.

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Paul, a Shorewood resident for nearly 15 years, lived in the Soviet Union for two years in the early 80s working as a nanny for an American executive and became friends with her Russian language tutor, Inna Kitrosskaya Meiman.

Their friendship reached new heights when cancer treatments in Russia weren't working and Meiman was denied the right to travel to the United States to seek medical care for cancer.

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Paul battled the USSR government on her friend's behalf, even going on a 25-day hunger strike and lobbying American officials in Washington for her beloved tutor.

"It’s fantastic, really a dream come true," Paul said about completing the book.

"It is a honor... it’s really a tribute to my friend," Paul said. "It's funny it's labeled a memoir because the story has never been about me. I was lucky to be in that time and place and meet the people that I met, especially Inna."

Meiman would finally reach the U.S. in 1987, but die three weeks into treatment.

"This moving account will inspire new generations to fight for the causes in which they believe," Paul's website says.


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