by Ann S. Epstein
As a reader with both biological and chosen sisters, I’m a sucker for stories about sisterhood. But what I didn’t expect upon reading Ann S. Epstein’s newest historical novel, THE SISTER KNOT, was to absorb such a deep, complex emotional understanding of the binding power of wartime trauma.
Frima and Liane are just two of the many young children in Germany orphaned during World War II and left to survive on their own. Though unrelated, they form a bond based on finding the bare necessities of food and warmth, which means turning to prostitution. After the war, they’re brought to America by a Jewish organization and live in group housing until the fateful day they’re separated by opportunity. Frima is adopted by a childless Jewish couple, while Liane, who’s showing promise as a young sculptress, remains in care.
And so the two part ways as one enjoys affluence, while the other learns what it takes to survive in America without guidance, money or a college education. Yet the bond between them runs so strong, they continue to remain friends who share both an underlying trauma and deep understanding of what it means to be a female Jewish German immigrant in a male-dominated, often very antisemitic country.
I’ve read books by this author before, and one of the things she does best is handle often deeply unsettling history, circumstances and consequences with gentleness and nuance, all in the service of displaying her characters’ growth and resilience.
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THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD a historical novel
BLISS ROAD, a memoir
WINTER LIGHT, a novel
THE WIND THIEF, a novel
GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS, a resource for writers
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