Karl Gagesch is a Canadian author and history enthusiast based in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Inspired since childhood by the stories of the last generation of Transylvanian Saxons, he set out to preserve a chapter of European history that is nearly forgotten. As one of the few specialists in this subject, Karl writes from a rare vantage point — the descendant of a people whose 800-year presence in the southern Carpathians is almost gone.
His debut book, I Am Saxon, is a FriesenPress Bestseller and a 2026 CanReads Award Finalist for Adult Nonfiction.
2026 CanReads Award — Finalist, Adult Nonfiction
FriesenPress Bestseller
About I Am Saxon
I Am Saxon: A History of the Transylvanian Saxons traces the story of a people from their 12th-century arrival as settlers in the southern Carpathian Basin — through their rise as renowned craftsmen, merchants, and builders of seven fortified towns — to their forced evacuation from Siebenbürgen after eight centuries. Drawing on broad historical narrative and personal family stories from his ancestral village of Draas, Karl Gagesch pays homage to a culture that has all but vanished. Available in hardcover, paperback, and all major e-book formats.
Buy I Am Saxon
FriesenPress: https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000491422590/Karl-Gagesch-I-am-Saxon
Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Saxon-History-Transylvanian-Saxons/dp/1038329957
Indigo: https://www.indigo.ca/products/i-am-saxon
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/i-am-saxon-a-history-of-the-transylvanian-saxons-karl-gagesch/d2a64d04bc4b0ced
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