The Whisper Sister
by Jennifer S. Brown 
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"The streets of New York in 1920 are most certainly not paved with gold, as Minnie Soffer learns when she arrives at Ellis Island. Her father, who left Ukraine when Minnie was a toddler, feels like a stranger. She sleeps on a mattress on the kitchen floor. She understands nothing at school. They came to America for this? As her family adjusts to this new life, Minnie and her brother work hard to learn English and make friends. When her father, Ike, opens his own soda shop, stability and show more citizenship seem within reach. But the soda shop is not what it seems; it's a front for Ike's real moneymaker: a speakeasy. When tragedy strikes the Soffers, Minnie has no choice but to take over the bar. She's determined to make the speakeasy a success despite the risks it brings to herself, her family, and her freedom. At what price does the American dream come true? Minnie won't stop until she finds out"-- show lessTags
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In a Nutshell: A historical fiction set during the Prohibition era. Great protagonist, great character development, great storyline, great themes, great writing. Basically, just great!
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Plot Preview:
Bookish Yays: show less
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Plot Preview:
1920. When Minnie Soffer arrives with her family to New York, she is surprised to learn that it isn’t as grand as she was told. Her father, who had emigrated to the US some years before, lives in a small house, and the language that everyone at school speaks is unfamiliar. Minnie and her elder brother Max work hard to adjust to their new lives. When her father opens a soda shop, it seems like life is finally going the right way. But the soda shop is just a front for a speakeasy, which soon becomes a bigger partshow more
of their life than they had anticipated.
The story, spanning the thirteen years of prohibition in the USA, covers Minnie’s struggles through childhood and young adulthood, and is written in her first-person perspective.
Bookish Yays: show less
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Author Information
2 Works 224 Members
Jennifer S. Brown is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Whisper Sister
- Alternate titles
- The Whisper Sister of Baxter Street
- Original publication date
- 2024
- People/Characters
- Malka “Minnie” Soffer; Feige Soffer; Yitzhak “Isaac” “Ike” Soffer; Shmerka “Max” Soffer; Gertie Soffer; Louise Soffer (show all 20); Mendel Myron “Duke” Hess; Sylvia Goldwasser; Aaron; Sara; Rabbi Umansky; Riley; Leo Umansky; Big Al Reed; Meyer Lansky; Frank; Earl Alterman; Mabel Alterman; Golde Fiedler; Toibe
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA; Bratsyana, Ukraine
- Important events
- Prohibition
- Epigraph
- The rain of tears is over. The slums will soon be a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories, our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright now, women will smile, children will laugh, hell will be ... (show all)for rent.
—-Reverend Billy Sunday, in a sermon in Richmond, Virginia, January 17, 1919 - Dedication
- For Melissa T. Brown
You'll always be the Max to my Minnie - First words
- When Mama fretted about us contracting polio, a streetcar crashing our limbs, a fall down the stairs, or whatever other tsuris she might invent, I threw her words back at her: if you're fated to drown, you may die in a teaspo... (show all)on of water.
Maybe this was meant to be.
Maybe I was his teaspoon of water. - Quotations
- How many people can you lose and still remain whole? How many tiny rips can your heart take before it shreds into pieces too small to repair?
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I'd never speak English without an accent. I'd never know my true birthday. I'd never be anything but a Jew from the old country.
But that made me no less of an American.
I was home. - Blurbers
- Jenoff, Pam; Loigman, Lynda Cohen; Kamali, Marjan
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- 27
- Popularity
- 1,013,742
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.38)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 2
