Michael Fryd
Author: memoir, novels and short fiction
After an award-winning career as a scientist, Michael Fryd returned to an early passion late in life: writing.
His short fiction has appeared in Intrinsick, Easy Street, Page and Spine, Evening Street Press, UK Short Humor, and Story Sanctum.
His memoir, My Mother’s War, was a runner-up for the 2023 Maxy Award for Creative Nonfiction - Bio & Memoir. Kirkus Reviews called it “...engrossing and immersive…a candid and compelling multigenerational account.”
His first novel, Eva’s Secret, published in March 2026, draws inspiration from his family’s history in Poland before and during the Holocaust. Kirkus Reviews described it as “an engaging, intimate tale about thriving under the most difficult of situations.” It received an Honorable Mention in the 2025 William Faulkner Literary Competition.
Michael lives and writes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
New: Eva's Secret
Her survival depended on a secret no one could discover.
Michael's first novel, Eva’s Secret, is one man’s tribute to his mother after discovering her diaries and his own Jewish identity after her death. It follows Eva Baum, born “Chawa Demb,” from her impoverished childhood in a Jewish village in Poland through her harrowing survival of Nazi occupation, her astonishing rise as an entrepreneur in the post-war Polish and Parisian black markets, and finally, her transformation into an American millionaire’s socialite wife.
Set against the brutal realities of World War II, Eva’s Secret is a powerful story of resilience, identity, and the small, defiant acts of hope that endure even in humanity’s darkest hours. It is a testament to the strength of those who survive not by force, but by intelligence, adaptability, and the unbreakable will to live.
Eva’s Secret is a haunting and hopeful coming-of-age novel about the quiet courage it takes to survive when being yourself is deadly.
Eva's Secret was published by Story Sanctum Publishing in March 2026.
Press & Awards for Eva's Secret
The William Faulkner Literary Contest 2025
Honorable Mention for Fiction
Kirkus Review
A character study that memorably chronicles one woman’s enduring will to succeed.
My Mother's War
My Mother's War stars my indomitable mother, Evelyn Fryd, a woman endowed with limitless courage, inborn intelligence, and outsized ambition. Growing up in a small Polish village in the 1920s, she felt suffocated and blocked by the patriarchal power structure of her Jewish community.
Determined to get an education and access to the larger world, she uses cunning and a flexible attitude toward truth to circumvent the obstacles in her path and reach her goals.
She uses these same skills, augmented by a loss of respect for the law, which did nothing to protect her from the Nazis, to save her family from the Holocaust, and after the war, to rebuild their lives as they flee the killing fields of Warsaw to Paris and finally New York.
My Mother's War was published by Story Sanctum Publishing in July 2023.
Press & Awards for My Mother's War
2023 Maxy Award for Creative Nonfiction
Kirkus Review
A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR’S TRIBUTE TO AN EXTRAORDINARY WOMAN
The Jewish Book Council
My Mother’s War: A Holocaust Survivor’s Tribute to an Extraordinary Woman
Main Line Television Documentary
Michael Fryd Holocaust Survivor, Mentor and Author "My Mother's War"
ABC 6 News
Holocaust survivor speaks to Philly students: 'Hatred against anybody is a destructive thing'
Stories Survive: “My Mother’s War” Book Talk
Michael Fryd Writes Holocaust Memoir About His Mother