BOOK REVIEW
Literary Speaking
The Lost Wife
By Alyson Richman
Reviewed by Dana Yanez-Soria, Yankton Community Library
The Lost Wife begins in the year 2000 in New York City. A young
couple, Eleanor and Jason, are about to be married at the Rainbow
Room in Manhattan.
“At the head table, the lone living grandparent from each side was
introduced to each other for the first time. Again, the groom’s grandfather
felt himself being swept away by the image of the woman before him.
She was decades older then her granddaughter, but there was something
familiar about her. He felt it immediately from the moment he first saw
her eyes.”
After she denies knowing him several times, he gently raises the
sleeve on her blouse to reveal six tattooed numbers.
“Do you remember me now?” he asked, trembling…”Lenka, it’s me,
Joseph. Your husband.”
I was hooked by the end of the first
chapter! After this revelation that
the couple was reunited after so
many years, the plot moves to
Czechoslovakia around 1924.
The storytelling goes back
and forth between Lenka
and Joseph’s point -of-view.
Both characters grew up
in fairly wealthy, happy,
successful Jewish
families. As they grow,
Lenka finds her
passion in art and is
enrolled at
Prague’s
Academy of Art
in 1936, at the
age of
seventeen.
Joseph is
following
his father’s footsteps and is
studying to be an obstetrician.
Lenka’s friend and fellow art
student, Veruska, introduces
Lenka to her brother Josef.
There is an instant chemistry
between the two and they fall
quickly in love. At this time, Lenka says she feels as if she is two
different people: someone happy and hopeful and deeply in love and,
at the same time, more than a little frightened about the uncertainty
and rumors that are spreading about the possible invasion by the
Germans during World War II.
As it becomes more clear that they will not be untouched by this
brewing war, Josef and Lenka rush to get married in January 1939
with the hope of getting visas for themselves and their families to
escape to the United States. They have a small but beautifully
romantic wedding. It is very evident that they are both so happy and
in love.
However, the morning after the wedding, Josef breaks the news
that he was only able to acquire enough visas for his parents, sister,
and himself and Lenka. Her family would have to stay behind until
they could figure out a way to bring them to the United States. Lenka
is heartbroken, torn between her family and her true love. But Lenka
is adamant that she cannot leave her family behind. Against Josef’s
wishes, she stays in Czechoslovakia to wait until they are able to get
her whole family to safety.
Shortly after they are separated, the Germans invade and Lenka’s
family is forced to move into a “Jewish community” and eventually to
Auschwitz. The story twists back and forth between Josef’s and
Lenka’s hardships, each of them believing the other had died.
Eventually they both remarry, but neither quite gets over that first true
love. As Josef explains,
“I am in love with a shadow. I look for her in the darkness of the
hallway. I search for her in the eyes of the old women crossing the street.
Over sixty years have passed and her shadow still walks beside me”.
The Lost Wife is a very gripping novel about love, life, survival, and the
strength and courage to move forward. It draws you in quickly and
you become attached to the characters. You will not regret reading
this beautifully written and moving novel!
Check Out...
hervoiceonline.com
HERVOICE JULY/AUGUST 2014 v 17