I love stories about human connection and creativity. I came to writing later in life; I was moved to research and write a memoir about raising our two daughters, both of whom were born deaf. I discovered in my Jewish ancestry two deaf great-great aunts who tied strings to their babies’ wrists at night so that when their babies cried, they would feel the tug in the darkness and wake to care for them. This innovation of connection has shaped me as a mother, a writer, and a reader. In my novel, The Yellow Bird Sings, a mother and daughter stay connected through music and the power of imagination.
I wrote...
The Yellow Bird Sings
By
Jennifer Rosner
What is my book about?
As Nazi soldiers round up Jews in their town, Róża and her 5-year-old daughter, Shira, flee, seeking shelter in a neighbor’s barn. Hidden in the hayloft day and night, Shira struggles to stay still and quiet, as music pulses through her and the farmyard outside beckons. To soothe her daughter and pass the time, Róża tells her a story about a girl in an enchanted garden: The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings.
In this make-believe world, Róża can shield Shira from the horrors that surround them. But the day comes when their haven is no longer safe, and Róża must make an impossible choice: to keep Shira by her side or give her the chance to survive apart.
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The Books I Picked & Why
The Weight of Ink
By
Rachel Kadish
Why this book?
The Weight of Ink is a sweeping, expansive story about two brilliant females: a young woman in the 1660s, who becomes the scribe to a blind rabbi and, through feats of great daring, a correspondent with the philosophers of the day; and an aging historian in the 1990s, who fights to gain access to and analyse these correspondences. Kadish highlights how intellectual women of different centuries have coped with restrictions set upon them.
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No One Is Here Except All of Us
By
Ramona Ausubel
Why this book?
I read this magical, mystical novel on an airplane, and had to retrieve a spare t-shirt from my suitcase to sob into! A beautiful, heart-wrenching work about family history, memory, and the power of imagination, the story is narrated by a girl, Lena, who leads her village to imagining their way out of the reality of the Holocaust's horrors. For a time, the villagers are spared, even repaired, until the outside world presses its way in and the myths crack, then shatter.
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The History of Love
By
Nicole Krauss
Why this book?
Every time I open The History of Love—and I return to it again and again—I find myself suspended between tears and laughter reading this gorgeous, emotionally-charged story. It is full of heartbreak and humor about an old man, Leo Gursky and a teenage girl, Alma—and the history, longing, and loneliness that brings them together, and connects all of us.
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The World That We Knew
By
Alice Hoffman
Why this book?
The World That We Knew blends realism and magic as a golem—a mystical human-like being, required to follow the demands of its maker— is invoked to protect a 12-year-old girl, Lea, escaping the horrors of the Holocaust. As the golem gains more humanity, the dangers and poignancies mount. A lyrical, heartrending novel about sacrifice, connection, love, and loss.
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The Last Train To London
By
Meg Waite Clayton
Why this book?
This suspenseful, big-hearted novel is based on the true story of Truus Wijsmuller, a childless Dutch woman who smuggled hundreds of Jewish children to London on the Kindertransport. The story is inspiring and beautiful, and shows the extraordinary power of one person to change the fates of many.
