In 1939, seventeen-year-old Reuven had a good life. The Polish Jewish teenager lived with his parents, grandmother and two sisters. He worked with his father who crafted perhaps the finest umbrellas in Poland. The greatest love of his life was his girlfriend Zelda. After the Nazi invasion Reuven's life, and that of countless others, was shattered. Zelda's family vanished. The Nazis robbed Reuven's family of their business and home. THE UMBRELLA MAKER'S SON, by Tod Lending, tells Reuven's story as he and his family flee the Nazis after a violent encounter with a Nazi and what happens afterward.
Reuven is a remarkable protagonist. After suffering horrific losses and personal injury, he exhibits incredible strength. He adapts to new perilous situations because he has a purpose. He is determined to survive and to find Zelda. Even though he can't understand all the hatred and horrors he encounters, he remains resolute. And Zelda? Will she be the same young woman he loved?
This is not an easy story to read. Having said this, THE UMBRELLA MAKER'S SON is well worth reading as it is an important story. Skillfully told, powerful and memorable it chronicles love and the bonds and loyalty of family. Highly recommended.
For fans of Heather Morris and Lisa Barr, a powerful and unforgettable novel of survival against all odds and the remarkable power of love, in which a Jewish teenager in World War II Poland fights to save his life and find the young woman who holds his heart.
Born to a secure, middle-class Polish Jewish family, seventeen-year-old Reuven works alongside his father, an artisan businessman whose shop creates the finest handmade umbrellas in Poland. But the family’s peaceful life shatters when the Nazis invade their homeland, igniting World War II. With terrifying brutality, the Nazis confiscate their business, evict them from their home, and strip away their rights, threatening the lives of the city’s Jewish population, including Reuven and Zelda, the girl he loves.
Shortly after the Nazi occupation, Zelda and her family disappear, and Reuven and his father are forced into backbreaking physical labor that nearly kills them. For the young man and his family, the only chance to survive is escape—and some of them will die trying.
Fleeing a Nazi ambush through the surrounding forest, shot and wounded, Reuven is found by a local farmer who has never met a Jew—and agrees to help because he needs the boy to work the farm with him. The farmer’s wife, however, is not as kind. Her betrayal forces a desperate Reuven to escape. He embarks on a perilous journey through the Polish countryside, determined to reach the Kraków ghetto where he hopes to reunite with Zelda, whose life has also been forever changed by the horrors of occupation and war.
A love story and a story of family, The Umbrella Maker’s Son is a riveting, heartfelt, and beautiful tale of survival and unexpected hope in the face of terror and violence. A chronicle of triumph, it joins the ranks of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and other memorable works ofmodern Holocaust literature.
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