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What does it mean to grow up in a family haunted by a tragedy? 

That’s one of the central themes in a new memoir by Laurie Hertzel, the former book review editor for the Minnesota Star Tribune. 

In “Ghosts of Fourth Street: My Family, a Death, and the Hills of Duluth,” Hertzel writes about growing up in Duluth in the 1960s, the seventh child in a family of 10 children.  

Her father was a college English instructor with a quick temper. Her mother was often overwhelmed. And her family was changed forever when she was 9, after the sudden death of her 18-year-old brother.  

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Laurie Hertzel about how we’re shaped by our family’s stories, sorrows and silences.  

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What happens when a family doesn’t talk about a tragic death? MPR News host Angela Davis talks with former Minnesota Star Tribune book review editor Laurie Hertzel about her new memoir, “Ghosts of Fourth Street.”

What happens when a family doesn’t talk about a tragic death? MPR News host Angela Davis talks with former Minnesota Star Tribune book review editor Laurie Hertzel about her new memoir, “Ghosts of Fourth Street."

Author Laurie Hertzel revisits the ghosts of her Duluth childhood

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