Books Set in North America; the United States

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, by Suleika Jaouad (2021)

 

This book is a memoir of a young woman who, at age 22, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.  It started with an uncontrollable and annoying itch.  Shortly after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad set off for Paris to begin a career as a journalist.  When she collapsed, she soon found herself on a flight back to New York where she was given a 35% chance of survival.

 

While isolated in the hospital, she began to document her treatments, first in a blog, and later in a regular column in the New York Times.  The response to her columns was phenomenal and soon she began receiving letters, emails and beginning correspondences with others who were similarly situated.

 

Shortly before being diagnosed, the author met “Will”.  They instantly fell for each other.  She feared that he would leave her when he learned she was so ill.  He didn’t.  He stuck by her throughout her treatments, stayed with her in the hospital, and ensured that she was getting proper care.  [Spoiler Alert:  When she is nearly in remission, their relationship began to faulter when he needed space for his well-being.  She gave him an ultimatum, and, to her surprise, he left.  Within months, she had found another lover, and when will wanted to reconcile, it was too late.]

 

Once Jaouad was deemed in remission, she learned how to drive and decided to set out on a 100-day solo road trip across the country to experience her new freedom and to meet some of her “pen-pals” who responded to her blog and newspaper columns.  The time alone on the drive allowed her to reflect on her life and her relationships formed during her illness.

 

The book’s title comes from a line in Susan Sontag’s memoir, Illness as a Metaphor, where Sontag noted that everyone is born with dual citizenship in the kingdom of wellness and the kingdom of sickness.  As Jaouad recounts her experience, she realized just how hard it was to adjust in moving from one “kingdom” to the other.

 

Read:  May 11, 2022

 

4 Stars

 

Books Set in Europe; Italy

Murder in Matera, by Helene Stapinski (2017)

 

Journalist Helene Stapinski grew up with the family lore of her great-great-grandmother Vita.  Vita had immigrated to the United States in the 1890s with her two teenage son, leaving her husband behind.  Vita was a murderess.  She had killed someone and left Italy to escape punishment.  She was also said to be a loose woman.  Why did she leave her husband behind?  She certainly paid the ultimate price for her crime when she, herself, was killed by a blow to the head at age 64.

 

Once in America, one of Vita’s sons went into a life of crime, as did the author’s grandfather.  Now the author ponders whether there really is a criminal gene, and would it be passed on to her children?

 

This thought haunts her, so she decides to venture back to the family’s ancestral home in Bernalda, Italy ~ the instep of Italy’s boot to learn her family’s history.  With little knowledge of her family background, with limited ability to speak Italian, and with two small children in tow, the author arrived in Bernalda and began asking questions.  She comes up empty.

 

Ten years later, the author ventured back to Italy, this time armed with two capable researchers who assist her as she pores over public birth, death, marriage records, and court murder transcripts.  What she finds astonishes her.

 

In the course of uncovering her family history, the author describes what life would have been like for the average peasant living hand-to-mouth in this rugged part of Italy.  The wealthy landowners were still expected to sleep with a young bride of his peasant worker.  The author envisions that this is what happened to Vita.  Her telling of Vita’s life is largely fiction, but is a plausible snapshot of how people lived in Bernalda in the latter half of the 1800s.

 

Spoiler Alert:  The trial transcript does, indeed, describe a murder.  The murderer is not, however, Vita, but instead, her husband Francesco.  The peasants are starving and do anything to get food for their families.  In the dead of night, Francesco and two of his friends were out taking pears from their landowner’s property.  They were confronted by whom they thought was the landowner.  The landowner had a shotgun and shot at the three men, slightly injuring one.  The other two men confronted the gunman, knocked him to the ground and badly beat him.  The injured man died a few days later.  Only later to they learn that the injured man was a young teenager, probably out to protect his family’s fruit orchard.  Francesco is found guilty of manslaughter and sent to prison.

 

A close look at the birth certificates of Vita’s children reveals that Vita is the wife of Francesco, but that he is “far from town” at the time of the births.  This leads the author to surmise that, with her husband in prison, Vita “gave” herself to the landowner in exchange for food.  The author also realized that if there is a murderous gene, it was not in Vita’s side of the family afterall.

 

This was a fast-paced read.  Much of what the author writes about her “murderous” great-great-grandmother is speculation, but does provide a glimpse of the harsh life of a peasant living in southern Italy in the later 1800s.

 

Read:  April 16, 2022

 

4 Stars

 

 

Books Set All Over the World

Exile: Portraits of the Jewish Diaspora, by Annika Hernroth-Rothstein (2020)

Journalist, Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, grew up Jewish in Sweden where she encountered antisemitism at a young age.  Her family was not originally Swedish, and she looked different from blond-haired, blue-eyed classmates.  This later was the seed for her quest to explore how Jews managed to survive in other countries throughout the world.  In the course of a few years, the author traveled to several countries, including Cuba, Iran, Siberia, Venezuela and Morocco, to delve into the small Jewish communities.

The first stop in her book (although not necessarily her first stop chronologically) was the small island of Djerba off the coast of Tunisia.  There she found the Jewish community was thriving, albeit in a self-imposed ghetto.  The community kept to itself, and its non-Jewish neighbors left them alone.  In Iran, the Jewish community emphasized that the country’s constitution provided them the freedom to practice their religion, subject, however, to Sharia law and refrain from showing support for Israel.  Synagogues in Iran were unguarded, unlike synagogues in Europe and the United States.

The author observed vibrant Jewish communities in places where one would not think such a community would be possible.  In each country and community, she visited, she observed how local practices impacted the community.  In some places, such as Venezuela, the community was deeply traditional, but not necessarily religious.  Despite the horrors and poverty of the country, the Venezuelan Jews were a tight-knit community protecting and looking out for each other.

In discussion each country, the author also provided a brief history of how the Jews came to be in that particular country.  It was interesting to read of the Jews of Cuba and Cuba’s interaction with the United States from a Swedish perspective.  American’s view the Cuban Revolution very differently.

I found this to be a very fascinating look at Jews throughout the world.

4.5 Stars

Read: March 29, 2022

Books Set in Australia; Melbourne

The Family Next Door, by Sally Hepworth (2018)

How well do you know the family next door?  That is the premise of this novel.  The novel focuses on a few neighbors in a quiet suburban neighborhood of Melbourne, Australia.  Essie and Ben seem to have the ideal life.  Angie and Lucas seem happy, as do Fran and Nigel.  All have young children.  When Isabelle moves into a house in the neighborhood, suddenly secrets come out.

Why is Isabelle, who is unmarried and has no children of her own, so interested in the children of her neighbors.  Does she really have a job?  Why is she so interested in Essie?

After the birth of her first child, Essie, suffering from post-partum depression left her newborn in a park for several hours.  After a stint in a psychiatric hospital, she returned to Ben, and they had a second child.  Essie’s mother moved nearby to help with the children.  Angie and Lucas appear to the outside world as a happy couple, despite Lucas’ past affairs.  Can Angie really put his past behind her?  Nigel is a loving father, but will his depression cause a rift in his marriage to Fran.  Do we really care?

As the novel moves forward, we learn the secrets of the neighbors, but ultimately, their lives are not really all that revealing or satisfying.  After having read Sally Hepworth’s novel, The Mother-in-Law, my expectations were high, and this book didn’t meet my expectations.

Read:  March 10, 2022

3 Stars

Books Set in Australia

The Mother-in-Law, by Sally Hepworth (2019)

 

The novel begins with the death of Diane Goodwin, the title’s mother-in-law.  She was mother to Ollie and Nettie and mother-in-law to Lucy.  Diana’s death appeared to be a suicide, but certain evidence caused the police to investigate.  Why was a suicide note left in a drawer, and not out where it would immediately be discovered?  Where did those mysterious gold threads come from, and why is there only one pillow in the sofa?  Diana was very rich, so there is motive and opportunity for foul play.

 

Lucy lost her mother when she was 13-years old, so she had hoped to be able to establish a warm and loving relationship with her mother-in-law.  Diana, however, does not have the warmest personality and keeps her thoughts and feelings to herself.  Even her friends do not really know Diana.  Thus, Lucy’s relationship with Diana is strained.

 

The novel goes back and forth in time and between Lucy and Diana.  Lucy and Ollie have what seems to be a perfect marriage.  They have three young children, Lucy is a stay-at-home mother who supports her husband’s business ventures.  Lucy is not keen on Ollie’s business partner, but believes in her husband.

 

Lucy and her mother-in-law have a strained relationship.  Lucy seemingly can do anything to please her mother-in-law.  From Diana’s voice, we learn that she had a very traumatic experience in her early years that shaped her ability to interact with others.  Diana worked hard to achieve her goals and believes that her children should do the same.

 

As we delve into the novel, we discover that each family member has secrets.  Nettie is desperate to have a child and is willing to do anything to have a baby.  All she needs is money.  Patrick, Nellie’s husband has secrets he is keeping from his wife.  Ollie’s business is not doing as well as he leads Lucy to believe.  All he needs is money.  Lucy has her own secrets.

 

This book has some wonderful twists and turns, that kept me guessing right to the end.  The conclusion of the novel did not disappoint.  I read it in one sitting.

 

5 Stars

 

Read:  February 27, 2022

 

 

Books Set in Europe; Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation, by Rosemary Sullivan (2022)

 

In August 1944, a German SS officer received a telephone tip of Jews hiding in a building located at Prinsengracht 263.  The exact details of the raid on the address have been lost to history, but the raid resulted in the capture of the Frank family and 4 other individuals who had been in hiding in the Annex for the past 2 years.  Anne, her sister Margot, and her mother did not survive the concentration camp where they had been deported.  Anne’s father, Otto, did survive.  Anne’s diary also survived.  With the publication of her diary, Anne became a symbol of the millions who died at the hands of the Nazis.

 

This book attempts to answer the question of who betrayed the secret hiding place?  In 2016, a team of forensic scientists, a former FBI agent, historians, and others, was put together to comb through hundreds of documents, interviews, and other evidence to find the answer … or at least an answer.  This book is the story of the evidence compiled by the Cold Case Team.

 

The author notes that the Netherlands was responsible deporting more Jews to concentration camps than other European countries.  Near the beginning of German Occupation, a Jewish Council, made up of Jews, was formed, ostensibly to help the Jews of the Netherlands and fend off anti-Jewish actions.  Soon, however, the Council was ordered to help organize the selection of Jewish deportees to concentration camps.  The Cold Case team extensively examined the pasts of the members of the Council for clues to see if one could have betrayed the Franks.

 

Members of the Council would have had access to lists of addresses where Jews of the Netherlands might be.  Thus, Council members could have retained such lists as insurance to be used to save their lives, leading to the conclusion that another Jew betrayed the Franks.  The Cold Case Team seems to ignore the fact that whether or not a Council member was the betrayer of the Franks, the Council members certainly betrayed hundreds of other fellow Jews.

 

The book examined a number of possible betrayers and the Cold Case Team eliminated them one-by-one, until singling one out.  The suspect was a member of the Jewish Council, thus would have access to addresses of hiding places.  The Cold Case Team believed that Otto Frank knew his betrayer, but for reasons known only to himself, kept his identity to himself.

 

The Team concluded that a man named Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish notary, was the most likely betrayer.  He is believed to have had a list of at least 500 names, which he may have been holding as insurance to be used to save his life and that of his family.

 

I have mixed feelings about this book.  Clearly, a lot of time and money was spent searching for the betrayer of the Frank family.  There are many, many characters in this book, which makes it a bit confusing, especially since many names and titles are non-English.  But does find out out who actually betrayed one family, when so many families were betrayed really matter?  The take-away is that when faced with a life-or-death situation, one might easily betray another to save one’s self.

 

Read:  February 21, 2022

 

3 Stars

 

Books Set in Asia; China

The Moon in the Palace, by Weina Dai Randel (2016)

 

This novel takes place in China in the 7^th Century and follows palace intrigue in the court of Emperor Taisong.  The novel is the first in a series and follows young Mei as she enters the court.  As a naïve young girl, she must learn quickly who she can trust and who can help her achieve what she believes to be her destiny ~ to become a great leader.

 

I found the first part of the book to be interesting, but the novel took way too long before anything of any real important to happen.  I won’t be continuing in this series.

 

Read:  February 2022

 

2 Stars