Search - Who by Fire (P.S.)

What an amazing first book for a totally empathetic author. Richly sprinkled with Yiddish terms (many of which I had to look up), but in each case, they were necessary to carry the true flavor of the characters. This is a narrative work in which the events evolve through the voices of three people, mother, son and daughter. Each chapter is in another voice, and you never get them confused. It's a dysfunctional family that was torn apart by the kidnapping and disappearance of another sibling several years earlier. Each character deals with this loss in their own way. Suffice to say that it brings out and exacerbates certain negative traits in the lives of each person. The story takes place in New York, Colorado and Israel and shows how each person, in fumbling attempts to find themselves and rid themselves of the quilt that accompanied the loss of their daughter/sister, tries to find wholeness in the world. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

I was in between on this book. I hated the characters because I thought them so damaged and egocentric, but I think it was well written for the same reason. It takes good writing for me to have an emotional reaction to characters. It's a short read, which is good.