Otto Berliner Writes "Cobbler of Normandy"

Otto Berliner, ASC professor of
psychology emeritus, who escaped the Nazis in his native Hungary during
World War II, has written a historical novel that has premiered to terrific
reviews. In fact, the book was selected,
by the entire editorial review staff of New Book Reviews (NBR), as the winner
of NBR.org's Best Historical Fiction Book of 2007 Literary Award. The book was published through the BookSurge
division of Amazon.com.

The book, The Cobbler of Normandy, follows the actions of five characters during
the resistance in France
during WWII, who gathered information for the Allies in Occupied France. Although the book is not an autobiographical
novel, Berliner uses his own experiences as an information courier during Nazi
occupation in Hungary
as the genesis of his novel. He also
conducted extensive research to complete the book.

Born in Budapest, Hungary,
Berliner graduated from the Madach Gymnasium in Budapest.
In 1944 the Germans split Berliner's family, taking his father to a work
camp, and sending Berliner and his mother to live with another family. Eventually,
Berliner, too, was taken to a location where he was made to perform hard
physical labor. When an opportunity to
escape presented itself, Berliner took it, contacting a friend who set Berliner
and his mother up in a safehouse; he worked as a courier throughout the rest of
the war. In 1949, the Berliners
emigrated to the United
States.

Berliner earned degrees in
psychology and counseling at New
York University,
the University of
Rochester, and SUNY
Buffalo, hiring on as an assistant professor of psychology at Alfred State
College in 1965, where he remained until his retirement in 2002.

He and his late wife Hedy, a Holocaust survivor, are the parents of one son, Steven Berliner, MD, and one daughter, Karen Pecoraro.  He and his current wife Joyce live in Alfred.