A riveting tale of the generational havoc Jews suffered as a result of global persecution.
In this debut historical novel, a Lithuanian girl who grows up under Soviet rule suddenly learns to her astonishment that her biological mother is Jewish and lives in Israel.
Raisa’s life is caught in the crucible of European history—first, her native Vilna, Poland, is transformed into Vilnius, Lithuania, under the oppressive rule of the Soviet Union. Next, life becomes intolerable for Jews after the Nazis invade, changing what was once a “center of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe” into a dangerously inhospitable environment for Jews. A trusted friend, Pani Orlovich, betrays Raisa and her family—Pani reports their hideout to German authorities. While fleeing for her life, Raisa is separated from her husband, Israel. Raisa’s traumatic experiences haunt her—she wonders whether she is the “only Jew left on the planet.” She makes a tortured decision to leave her infant daughter, Sonia, with a stranger, Elena Stepanovna Sokol, who is likely better equipped to guarantee both the child’s safety and emotional well-being. Reiches poignantly chronicles Sonia’s upbringing under Soviet rule and her callow commitment to an idealistic Communism. Her stance is challenged by the revelation that Elena isn’t her biological mother and that Sonia is, as a matter of ancestry, a Jew. Now in Israel, Raisa presents Sonia with a choice as enticing as it is aching—stay in Lithuania with the only mother she’s ever known or join Raisa in Israel. The author powerfully captures a dark period for European Jewry in this heart-wrenching and complex tale, deceptively conveyed in simple, unadorned prose. At the heart of her novel is the question of unsettled identity—Sonia is a Jew whether she likes it or not in the eyes of her peers: “Being Jewish is pretty complicated. Once you are born Jewish, there is no choice. The world will not let you not to be Jewish.” This is a story that in one way or another has been told many times before, but Reiches’ take is nonetheless emotionally intelligent and historically authentic.
A riveting tale of the generational havoc Jews suffered as a result of global persecution.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4834-9347-3
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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