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Vera, or faith : a novel / by Shteyngart, Gary,1972-author.;
"The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Adopted children; Families; Multiracial families; Preteen girls; Geopolitics;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Daughters of the occupation : a novel / by Sanders, Shelly,1964-author.;
"Based on a true story, this is a powerful novel about a Jewish family who were victims of Nazi genocide in Latvia, one of the Baltic states. It is based on the little known, horrific Rumbula Massacre when 30,000 Jews were slaughtered in two days in 1941. In 1941, Miriam, the matriarch of the family, is the sole survivor of this horrendous massacre. She has had to make a 'Sophie's Choice' - and abandon her children to the care of a Gentile friend who hides them. She and her parents are rounded up and made to live in the Jewish Ghetto in Riga, the capital of Latvia. Miriam, along with thousands of other Jews, is forced marched to the execution pits. Incredibly, she manages to escape the carnage when night falls. Through a series of dramatic events, she finds sanctuary in the countryside - and manages to hide for three years to survive the war. Consumed by guilt, she is reunited finally with her daughter - but has lost her son. Thirty-five years later, living in Chicago with her family, Miriam's grand-daughter Sarah tries desperately to ferret out Miriam's family secret to find out what happened. Miriam does not want to revisit the past. But Sarah persists and eventually finds out enough to impel her to travel to Riga, then under Soviet control and at the height of the Cold War, to try to find her uncle, Miriam's lost son. But her search for the truth may threaten her freedom, when she comes face to face with the KGB. Told in alternating chapters between 1941 and 1976, this gripping novel delves into the trauma that survivors of genocide face down through the generations"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Jewish families; Rumbula Massacre, Rumbula, Latvia, 1941; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Fervor : a novel / by Lloyd, Toby Phips,author.;
"Hannah and Eric Rosenthal are devout Jews living in North London with their three children and Eric's father Yosef, a Holocaust survivor. Both intellectually gifted and deeply unconventional, the Rosenthals believe in the literal truth of the Old Testament and in the presence of God (and evil) in daily life. As Hannah prepares to publish a sensationalist account of Yosef's years in war-torn Europe-unearthing a terrible secret from his time in the camps-Elsie, her perfect daughter, starts to come undone. And then, in the wake of Yosef's death, she disappears. When she returns, just as mysteriously as she left, she is altered in disturbing ways."--
Subjects: Witch fiction.; Horror fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Magic realist fiction.; Novels.; Dysfunctional families; Generational trauma; Grandfathers; Holocaust survivors' families; Jewish families; Siblings; Teenage girls; Witches;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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The magician / by Tóibín, Colm,1955-author.;
"The Magician opens at the turn of the twentieth century in a provincial German city where the young boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative, conventional father and a Brazilian mother, exotic and unpredictable, who will never fit in. He hides both his artistic aspirations and his homosexual desires from this father, and his sexuality from everyone. He longs for the charismatic, beautiful, rich, cultured young Jewish man, but marries his twin sister. He longs for a boy he sees on a beach in Venice and writes a novel about him. He has six children. He is the most successful novelist of his time. He wins the Nobel Prize and is expected to lead the condemnation of Hitler. His oldest daughter and son share lovers. They are leaders of Bohemianism and of the anti-Nazi movement. This stunning combination of German propriety and Bohemian revolution goes hand in hand for decades. We see the rise of Hitler, the forced exile of a swath of German writers and artists, Mann's narrow escape to America, his sojourn at Princeton, along with fellow exile Einstein, and his final move to LA in the late 40s where he presided over an astonishing community of writers, artists and musicians, including Brecht and Shoenberg, even as his children court tragedy. To call this a portrait of an artist is both reductive and true-it is a novel about a character and a family, fiercely engaged by the world, profoundly flawed, and as flamboyant as it's possible to be"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Biographical fiction.; Mann, Thomas, 1875-1955; Bohemianism; Gay men; Novelists, German;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Vera, or faith [text (large print)] : a novel / by Shteyngart, Gary,1972-author.;
"The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Large print books.; Novels.; Adopted children; Families; Multiracial families; Preteen girls; Geopolitics;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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My friend Anne Frank : the inspiring and heartbreaking true story of best friends torn apart and reunited against all odds / by Pick-Goslar, Hannah,author.; Kraft, Dina,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In 1933, Hannah Pick-Goslar and her family fled Nazi Germany to live in Amsterdam, where she struck up a close friendship with her next-door neighbor, an outspoken and fun-loving young girl named Anne Frank. For several years, the inseparable pair enjoyed a carefree childhood of games, sleepovers, and treats with the other children in their neighborhood of Rivierenbuurt. But in 1942, Hannah and Anne's lives abruptly changed forever. As the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam progressed, Anne and the Frank family seemingly vanished, leaving behind unmade beds and dishes in the sink--but no trace of Anne's precious diary. Torn from her dear friend without warning, Hannah spent the next two years tormented by questions about Anne's fate, wondering if she had, by some miracle, managed to escape danger. In this long‑awaited memoir, Hannah shares the story of her childhood during the Holocaust, from the introduction of anti-Jewish laws in Amsterdam to the gradual disappearance of classmates and, eventually, the Frank family, to Hannah and her family's imprisonment in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. As Hannah chronicles the experiences of her own life during and after the war, she provides a searing look at what countless children endured at the hands of the Nazi regime, as well as an intimate, never‑before‑seen portrait of the most recognizable victim of the Holocaust. Culminating in an astonishing fateful reunion, My Friend Anne Frank is the profoundly moving story of childhood and friendship during one of the darkest periods in the world's history."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Pick-Goslar, Hannah; Frank, Anne, 1929-1945; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Once we were home / by Rosner, Jennifer,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."From Jennifer Rosner comes a novel based on the true stories of children stolen in the wake of World War II. Ana will never forget her mother's face when she and her baby brother, Oskar, were sent out of their Polish ghetto and into the arms of a Christian friend. For Oskar, though, their new family is the only one he remembers. When a woman from a Jewish reclamation organization seizes them, believing she has their best interest at heart, Ana sees an opportunity to reconnect with her roots, while Oskar sees only the loss of the home he loves. Roger grows up in a monastery in France, inventing stories and trading riddles with his best friend in a life of quiet concealment. When a relative seeks to retrieve him, the Church steals him across the Pyrenees before relinquishing him to family in Jerusalem. Renata, a post-graduate student in archaeology, has spent her life unearthing secrets from the past--except for her own. After her mother's death, Renata's grief is entwined with all the questions her mother left unanswered, including why they fled Germany so quickly when Renata was a little girl. Two decades later, they are each building lives for themselves, trying to move on from the trauma and loss that haunts them. But as their stories converge in Israel, in unexpected ways, they must each ask where and to whom they truly belong."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Belonging (Social psychology); Holocaust survivors; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The diary of a young girl : the definitive edition / by Frank, Anne,1929-1945,author.; Frank, Otto,1889-1980.; Pressler, Mirjam,editor.; Massotty, Susan,translator.;
This book is part of our Book Sanctuary collection. A Book Sanctuary is a physical or digital space that actively protects the freedom to read. It provides shelter and access to endangered books. Launched by Chicago Public Library in 2022, The Book Sanctuary initiative brings attention to challenged titles, and commits to making these books accessible. Innisfil ideaLAB & Library's Book Sanctuary Collection represents books that have been challenged, censored or removed from a public library or school in North America. More than 50 adult, teen, and children's books are in our collection and are available for browsing and borrowing in our branches and online. Explore the collection to learn more about why these books were challenged.
Subjects: Diaries.; Frank, Anne, 1929-1945; Banned book sanctuary.; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Jews;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 2
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The boy who followed his father into Auschwitz : a true story of family and survival / by Dronfield, Jeremy,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Vienna, 1930s. The Kleinmann family live a simple, ordinary life. Gustav works as a furniture upholsterer while Tini keeps their modest apartment. Their greatest joy is their children: Fritz, Edith, Herta and Kurt. But after the Nazis annex Austria, the Kleinmanns' world rapidly shifts before their eyes. Neighbours turn on them, the business is seized. The threat to the family becomes ever greater. Gustav and Fritz are among the first to be taken. Nazi police send the pair to Buchenwald in Germany, the beginning of an unimaginable ordeal. Over the months of suffering that follow, there is one constant that keeps them alive: the love between father and son. Then they discover that Gustav will be transferred to Auschwitz, a certain death sentence, and Fritz is faced with a choice: let his father die alone, or join him ... Based on meticulous archival research and Gustav's secret diary, this book tells the Kleinmanns' remarkable story for the first time."-- Page [4] of cover.
Subjects: Personal narratives.; Kleinmann, Gustav, 1891-1976.; Kleinmann, Fritz, 1923-; Buchenwald (Concentration camp); Fathers and sons; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In sunshine or in shadow / by Bowen, Rhys,author.; Broyles, Clare,author.;
"Retired Detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is back with In Sunshine or in Shadow, the next book in this beloved series by New York Times bestselling author Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles. New York, 1908: The days are getting longer-and warmer-in Manhattan. Molly Murphy Sullivan doesn't want to leave her home in the city, but typhoid is back, and she's expecting. So she heads north with the children to summer with her mother-in-law in Westchester County. Molly tells herself it won't be so bad, after all the countryside is pretty, and she's determined to make the best of it. Even if she's leaving her husband, Daniel, behind. And at least she's not the only one heading north. Her great friends, Sid and Gus, are headed to the Catskills to visit Sid's family. Though her mother-in-law is a surprisingly excellent host, Molly quickly grows bored. And when Sid and Gus invite her to visit, Molly jumps at the chance to stay with them at an artist's community. What a pleasant time they'll have, so far from the city, although Sid isn't so enthusiastic about having to visit her family in the nearby Jewish bungalow community. But deep in the Catskills, tensions are running high, and it's not long before a body delays Molly's return to Westchester"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; Murder; Murphy, Molly (Fictitious character); Pregnant women; Women private investigators;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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