The stories - Norma Armon

Stories that cross Borders

From migration to memory, each book invites you to step into lives shaped by movement, resilience, and the search for belonging.

Never Home: The Otherness of Immigrants

This first volume of the Never Home series is a novel that follows the intertwined journeys of Ben and Goittie, two fictional characters fleeing persecution in early 20th-century Ukraine. With emotional precision and historical sensitivity, author Norma Armon brings to life the experience of migration—not as a statistic, but as a deeply personal and human upheaval.

As Ben and Goittie leave behind the familiarity of their shtetl life, they face a world that constantly demands adaptation—new language, new customs, and the pressure to blend in. Even their names are changed upon arrival, a quiet yet powerful symbol of the loss and reinvention so many immigrants endure.

Through their eyes, Never Home explores the emotional cost of displacement, the quiet strength of resilience, and the hope that drives people to seek a future beyond borders. Without offering solutions, Norma invites readers to reflect on what it means to belong, to be “other,” and to rebuild a life in a place that doesn’t yet feel like home.

A tribute to the generations of immigrants whose stories often go untold, Never Home illuminates the universal threads that connect us across time, culture, and distance.

Never Home: A Memoir of Otherness

This second volume of the Never Home series invites readers into the intimate and complex journey of belonging, across generations, cultures, and continents. In this second book, Norma Armon offers a deeply personal and multigenerational perspective on migration—this time exploring what it means to return, to question one’s roots, and to live between worlds.

Told in the first person, this powerful memoir delves into the emotional weight of being “other” in both the place you come from and the one you’ve arrived in. As families redefine what “home” means with each crossing, Norma traces the lived experiences of those navigating inherited memories, cultural adaptation, and identity in flux.

Through rich, evocative storytelling, Never Home: A Memoir of Otherness goes beyond a historical account—it’s a moving reflection on alienation, survival, and the enduring human need to belong somewhere, even when that place doesn’t yet exist.

A must-read for anyone drawn to stories of migration, family legacy, and emotional resilience, this book offers a tender, thought-provoking journey that lingers long after the last page.

Chord & Discord: Music-Themed Stories by the Walnut Creek Writers Guild

Chord & Discord features a rich collection of short stories inspired by the power and emotion of music. It contains Norma Armon short story “Amanuensis” about the magic of inspiration.

Among the voices in this diverse anthology is Norma Armon, contributing her unique storytelling to a blend of genres ranging from drama to fantasy. While each story stands on its own, together they compose a vibrant symphony of imagination, memory, and rhythm.

The View From Here

It contains Norma Armon’s short story “The Starter Kit” in which a glimmer of possibility softens the apocalyptic vision of the end of civilization through environmental degradation and mass illiteracy.

Our readers

Norma Armon has written a moving story about the lives of an immigran famiywho fled from the shtetls of Ukraine and the pogroms of pre-war Russia. The book traces the fortunes of their families and their courageous struggles to make a life in the new world.

This was a quick and easy read that kept me interested throughout. The characters are well developed and you can get a real feel for their world and circumstances at the time.

Never Home is a gripping tale about Russians immigrating through Rumania and the U.S to Mexico. But it also reflects the achievement of the the American dream for poor rural families. Very few of us have personally experienced the very emotional family squabblers, the great difficulty of the journey to where the streets are paved with gold, and the perseverance and sacrifices needed to become truly wealthy. Ms Armon skillfully has her characters jump off the pages to vividly tell us in a way we won't forget. She leaves us hungering for the second and third books in her trilogy.

"Never Home: The Otherness of Immigrants" weaves together a compelling story of two families' travails in emigrating to the Americas and the societal structures in Europe, the U.S.A., and Mexico (with a touch of Canda thrown in) that impacted the family members. It paints a vivid picture of the complex family relationships that are easy to relate to for anyone. The protagonists Ben and Goittie are strong minded people who keep you engaged with the plot. Ms. Armon did a deft job of setting the paths for the protagonists to meet. Ms. Armon also grounds the stories in their time with detailed descriptions of the places they lived and difficulties they faced in making their way to the Americas and how they achieved their goals.

Norma Armon has written a remarkable book. Deeply researched, she writes vividly of her family's disaspora, finally ending in Mexico where they create a new life. She fully fleshes out her main charaters, Goittie and Ben, which pulled me into the story...I could hardly put down the book. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

Norma Armon is to be commended for her painstaking, imaginative recreation of a Jewish shtetl community and two unforgettable characters modeled on her parents who make their way from Russia to Canada, the United States and finally Mexico in the 1920s. With no more live witnesses to that perilous and complicated journey, Armon's moving and entertaining narrative is further enriched by its important testimonial dimension.

This is a short read, but engaging. We follow the lives of immigrants with different temperaments and goals. I have never felt how awful the third class journeys on the boats were coming over. The courage and resilience comes through. I really learned a lot about the Jewish immigrants who moved to Mexico and formed a vibrant community. You care about the characters. You won't be disappointed.