Lost Loves

I was asked to take a friend to a doctor's appointment yesterday, so while I sat in the waiting room reading the last of this trio of novels, I blubbered. There are parts of all three novels in this collection that brought tears to my eyes.

Katia tells of lost siblings, and she's now old and alone and wants to tell her story. She hires Madeline, a journalism student to write it all down for her. As Katia reveals her past, more and more things are revealed as well. Madeline begins to think about her life and what she wants from it as Katia tells of the hardships she's gone through, survived, and even thrived through.

For Maria not only tells of lost siblings, but lost children. Madeline has taken it upon herself to find Kammbrie and Lili-Anna, Maria's twin girls she lost during the holocaust. When she finds one of the twins, Madeline sets up a meeting between Maria and Kammbrie, which doesn't go anywhere near what Madeline expected.

Bruce Judisch has done such a wonderful job weaving these two stories together. I've never read any of his writings before, but I will be looking for more of his books to read.

The last book in this trilogy is called The Train Baby's Mother by Sharon Bernash Smith. This is the one that had me blubbering in the clinic waiting room. From the very beginning, the reader knows that Hadassah is going to die. She begins to tell her story in a journal for her son to read after she's gone. In the telling of her story, she reveals that Michael is not her only child, that she'd had two children when she was taken to Ravensbruck Women's Interment camp. On the way, her husband, Avram threw Esther, the baby from the train, hoping that someone would find her and take care of her.

I can't really tell much of the stories of these Lost Loves of World War II because that would give too much away, but these stories are all well written, intriguing, and exciting. Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and an urgent encouragement to read the book.