This is a heartbreaking book that brings us three generations of a family most living on a kibbutz, struggling every day, drowning in the tributaries that have broken off from an devastating huge original river of trauma. That original river flows from Vera (who is a fictionalized version of a real person with whom Grossman had a long friendship and who asked him to write the book of her story but make it fiction) who was held in Tito's camps under the most horrifying of conditions accused of being a Russian agent. There is a lot that needs to be said to explain why all this matters and how it impacts others, but that is the story so I am not going to discuss it here. All I will say is that Vera made many decisions which sprang from love but which destroyed her daughter Nina, which in turn led to a life of loss for the man who loved her daughter and a life of disaffection for their daughter, Gili. When Nina returns to the kibbutz (for reasons I won't reveal) after having abandoned her husband and daughter many years ago she asks that a film be made about the family's story (the abandoned husband had, in the past, been a filmmaker, and the daughter had, also in the past, worked in film.) Can the making of that film help all reconcile their traumas or maybe provide a path forward, or will it be the thing that finally destroys their tenuous hold on life? Read and see. The book is fascinating, beautifully crafted and told with great compassion (as one expects from David Grossman) and it illuminates a historical moment many people are unfamiliar with while telling us things both beautiful and not beautiful about love.

There are a couple clunky parts of this that kept it from being a 5-star read. I feel the author should have spent more time talking about what happened to Nina while her mother was in the camp, and it should have been addressed earlier. Gili's relationship with her husband is introduced, but it just kind of hangs there -- she never really seems to think much about her husband beyond big existential issues regarding their relationship, and that is weird. Gili's mental health struggles are dropped on the reader like a bomb, and the evolution of her life, her ups and downs are missing. Either these things should have been left out, or more provided. Overall, though these were frustrating issues, they did not blunt the books impact. ( )

Une difficulté, parfois, de construction nuisent au récit. Il en reste un livre particulièrement profond et touchant. L'histoire conserve son mystère malgré les éclaircissements. Une réussite un peu ardue. ( )

How did this not make the International Booker Prize shortlist? Criminal! ( )

granddaughter, mother, father & grandmother go back to GOLI OTOK, Croatia==the Prison the grandmother was in. Grandmother abandoned her daughter in order not to betray her dead husbands good name. This is the story of how 3 generations are affected by this imprisonment. The granddaughter is a filmmaker and is estranged from the mother, but slowly the story opens, like a movie, you see each characters side. ( )

Unconditional love and the long tentacles of war, engulf three generations of women and the man who loved all of them. Vera, Nina and Gili, each with their own experiences, impacted by Vera and her horrific war experiences and the decisions she made in the past.

This author, though male, does a terrific job describing women, treating them with respect and empathy. Not an easy feat. This book also describes an area of which I have read little. Yugoslavia and Tito. An impactful book, taking us from a kibbutz in Israel, to Yugoslavia and a journey into the past. Secrets kept, one in particular, that led the way to dysfunctional relationships between mothers and daughter. Also, a journey of revelation, healing and a new understanding. How did the decisions made in the past, alter their present?

A terrific book, and a wonderful translation. ( )