What a wonderful title for the new book by Gudrun Mouw. Mouw, herself having grown up in East Prussia has written about the Holocaust and countered balanced that atrocity against the Native American struggle on the coast of California at the time of the Spanish conquest. Though the subject of the novel is interesting, the execution of the writing did not grab me and make me eager to read the novel.
This was a very abstruse novel. I found the plot incomprehensible to follow. It is not that the story line is complicated but it was not to my taste. The chapters alternate between the story of Ruth, who living as a young Jewish girl during the Holocaust, Friede who is of German decent living during the Holocaust and her father is a soldier who is sent away to a work camp. This is all set against a story of Saqapaya, a Native American from coastal California during the time of the Spanish conquest.
Each of the main characters are suffering through tragic turbulent times in history. Somehow there is a phoenix bird that flies through their stories tying them together. Then there is a light that shines through each situation as if the character is having an out of body experience, or finding truth.
When Friede is converting to Judaism she talks about a dream she had, "I had a dream last night. In the dream, there was a part where I saw nothing but light, and it was as if the light was chanting, ... (she chants) As I repeat these words I feel strong inside, light shines around the walls of the room, along the ceiling and along the shapes of the celebrants. I see myself standing inside the light."
Though a topic and time period I really enjoy reading about, this book was not a story I enjoyed. I was not eager to finish reading the book and I would not, I am sorry to say, recommend it to friends.
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