Compulsively readable debut about two brothers, their wives, and their families sharing a two-family house in Brooklyn just after World War II. Loigman draws in readers with a pitch perfect description of time and place, as well as uniquely drawn characters who are all-too human.

This book is an excellent choice for those who enjoy family dramas. Loigman deftly explores the relationships between the brothers, husbands and wives, parents and children, cousins, aunts/uncles with their nieces/nephews, and most especially the sisters-in-law. Their story forms the crux of the novel and affects all the other relationships.

I listened to the audio version, which was particularly enjoyable as the narrator captured the unique New York City accents.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.
( )

This is the story of Helen and Rose, sisters-in-law and best friends raising their families and sharing their lives together. Helen has the upstairs apartment with her husband Abe and is raising a house full of boys.

Rose has the downstairs with her husband Mort and their daughters.
This struck a chord with me, as when my husband and I were first married we lived for 5 years in a 2 family house and had the upstairs. Downstairs were my parents and sisters. I felt the author quite accurately portrayed the feeling of being one big happy family and yet still wanting your own space with your own family.

Though Abe and Mort are brothers they are very different and not as close as Helen and Rose. They own a business together and work together each day but don't share much else in common. Their approach to raising children is quite different, their marriages are quite different, Mort is more cold and less demonstrative, sometimes cruel. Abe is more warm and affectionate. Rose often feels that things would be different if she had born a son instead of only daughters... Helen sometimes feels overwhelmed with her house full of boisterous boys and wishes she had a daughter to talk and laugh and share with, but they each try to make the best of things in their own way, and they could not love each other more if they were sisters by blood and not only marriage.

Sadly, choices that they make leads to a rift in their relationship. Things they thought they could live with become impossible to bear. Tragedy tears them further apart. I don't want to give away too much, but I truly felt for these characters, I sympathized, I empathized and I felt their heartbreak.
I am impressed with author Lynda Cohen Loigman and will most definitely be keeping an eye out for her future work.

I received an advance copy for review. ( )

This is not your usual family secret book where you have to figure out what the secret is. The secret, although only only alluded to, is pretty clear within the first few pages. The point of the book is describing the consequences of what happened for six of the characters. The book's structure, with short chapters, each from a different point of view deepens the reader's understanding of how each person feels, changes and acts.
The character's and life situations are very realistic, many readers will identify with them.
I highly recommend this gwntle and thoughtful book. ( )

Story of two brothers and their families, living in a two family home in Brooklyn. Their lives change when each wife has the last baby. This chronicles, through the voice of many family members, about 25 years of their family story. Well told, but confusing to me keeping who was married to whom, the children, etc. The plot adds further confusion. But the writing style was comfortable, like a warm blanket on a cold night. Definitely, a women's book. ( )

I requested Lynda Cohen Loigman's The Two-Family House after reading The Wartime Sisters. This is another book about complex family dynamics, where flawed characters really do mean well, but there's no super-happy magical moment where it all works out great, fade to credits.

Two brothers, Abe and Mort, and their two wives and two families share a two-family house. The brothers work together in the company their father started. For Abe, work is just what you do to support your real life, with family, while Mort had to drop out of school, losing his chance to study higher math, when their father died. Upstairs, Abe and Helen have rowdy boys, and downstairs, Mort is disappointed that he and his wife Rose only have daughters. The household is bustling, with constant visits up and down, as well as visits with the extended family and machatunim, but Mort's disappointment over his lot in life is a constant sour note.

The plot hinges on something so wildly unrealistic and contrived, it's almost like magical realism -- as you read, you just need to accept this completely crazy thing happened, and go on with the developed characters. For a little while, I couldn't accept the main event as realistic or reasonable, and then, like any shocking family secret, it just seemed to be part of the family story.

By the end, though, I felt like I knew this family, like I'd grown up down the street, and had seen the kids mature and the family relationships change. Even though there are a lot of cousins in this book, I rarely had to think about who was who, because their personalities are so developed and consistent (including one daughter whose personality is basically being a follower of stronger personalities around her). This is an engaging family drama about the connections of blood, proximity, and choice. ( )