LEGACY OF SILENCE

Perennial bestseller Plain’s (Homecoming, 1997, etc.) newest, received too late for a full review, follows the love-hate relationship of two sisters, from the early days of WW II down to the present. “Smart, competent, and good” Lore, an orphan, had been adopted by a wealthy and progressive German family when she was 12, just after the birth of their own daughter, Caroline. Lore, dumpy and lovelorn, becomes a nurse. The handsome Caroline, who is half-Jewish, watches her prospects contract as the Nazis seize power. The two sisters manage to escape to Switzerland when their parents are killed, and eventually, after hardships, emigrate to America. They go their own ways, with bitterness and regret, when an unlikely romance comes between them. Plain follows the long road to the sisters’ reconciliation through several generations demonstrating, along the way, her talent for effortlessly moving a plot along, and illuminating the often complex bonds of love, resentment, and need that shape and define families.