At once well told and ineffably sad. Read it but keep your tissues handy.
A young man and the people he loves struggle to survive the Nazi occupation of Poland.
On September 1, 1939, the first day the bombs fall, Reuven Berkovitz and Zelda Abramovitch are in love and dream of a life together. Reuven helps his papa, Lev, an umbrella maker in Kraków who takes great pride in his work. But soon, German soldiers occupy Poland and force Papa to hand his shop over to a non-Jew. “Suddenly,” the 17-year-old Reuven says, “Papa and I were no longer umbrella makers. We were nothing.” The vise closes quickly on Jewish society, and “within nine months, the Germans had stolen our business, belongings, and identities.” Then the Jews of Kraków are confined within heavily guarded walls while the rest of the city goes about its daily business. Reuven has one advantage: Due to his fair coloring, he can easily pass for gentile. But the two lovers are separated early on, and Reuven’s unflinching desire to find Zelda is the engine that drives this compelling and heartbreaking debut novel. Once he witnesses the murder of his family, grief becomes his “constant companion....No matter how trapped [he] felt in [his] prison of melancholy, she was the one thing worth living for.” For a while, he survives by working on a farm and pretending he’s mute. Later, he’s on a work crew assigned to smash headstones then dig up and burn decaying bodies in a Jewish cemetery so a road can be built through it. The calculated and often casual cruelty is painful to read, even for those familiar with the dark history of antisemitism and the Nazi thugocracy. Reuven’s experiences feel so immediate that we want to cry with him. Will he ever find Zelda? Will they ever emerge together on the other side of the war? Will hope finally triumph over horror? A sympathetic Catholic man speaks to Reuven of a “memory now braided, like the bread, with love and grief.” Author Lending’s great-grandfather was an umbrella maker in Warsaw in the late 1800s and served as his inspiration.
At once well told and ineffably sad. Read it but keep your tissues handy.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780063413849
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.
A recently divorced writer juggles a chaotic full house, a struggling career, and a confusing romantic life.
Lila Kennedy thought she had the perfect family—a loving mother, a doting stepfather, two wonderful daughters, and a great husband. She even wrote a self-help book about repairing a marriage, which was published a mere two weeks before her husband left her. After her own mother’s sudden death, Lila finds herself an unexpected single mom with her health-nut stepfather, Bill, for a roommate. When her long-absent actor father, Gene, moves in, things go from crowded to chaotic. When Gene isn’t talking about his memories of starring on a Star Trek–like television show, he’s starting fights with Bill. Perhaps the worst part is that Lila’s supposed to produce a new book about the unexpected direction her life has taken. She quickly finds that writing about her real-life romantic exploits (including the kind gardener Bill hired and the sexy single dad she lusts after at school pick-up) and the actual heartbreak that upended her family is easier said than done. Moyes creates a world that is believable and funny. It’s hilarious to read about the distinct characters in Lila’s life—such as her lentil-loving stepfather and egocentric biological father—interacting with each other. There’s plenty of drama here, but none of it feels forced. It all comes from flawed people doing their best to coexist and making plenty of mistakes along the way. Moyes combines the warmth of an Annabel Monaghan rom-com with the humanity of a Catherine Newman novel, creating a story that will provoke tears and laughter.
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781984879325
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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