The Wholeness of a Broken Heart: A Novel

This is a novel driven by character development and dependent on the past. It tells the life story of Hannah starting when she was ten years old. On the surface she is a girl growing up, becoming a woman, and struggling with a rapidly unraveling relationship with her once adoring mother. Digging deeper it is the story of several generations of women, each with her own trials and tribulations. Wrapped around all of them is their Jewish culture, their history of survival (the Holocaust, emigrating to America). Chronologically, the story moves like waves across the water. Each wave is a different generation and all of their stories wash over Hannah as the proverbial shore. The voices from the "Other World" are a little hokey but these show more ghosts are necessary vehicles for bringing out the truth the living characters can't face. show less

Told from the viewpoint of various women in a family, it's another story of the Jewish experience, post WW II. I liked the story, but after having read a number of novels dealing with this topic, I have to ask, are there any treatments of the topic that have a faithful resolution? Any where the characters find God in their experiences?

Interesting book. Enjoyed the relationship issues and liked the characters even Celia. Worth reading