The Imperfects. by Amy Meyerson

What an entertaining book.  When you are sitting home during a pandemic and little annoyances get you and the other members in your household snapping at each other, this is a good book to be reading.

This novel will remind you that all families have some level of dysfunctional behavior happening in them.  If you are lucky you will feel like your family is not really all that bad.  Or maybe you will just be able to relate to the frustrating behavior of these siblings and their mother.

The plot of this novel centers around three siblings and their mostly absent mother.  She was never around when they were growing up and they were left with their grandmother, Helen Auerbach.  Now they are all grown and living in different parts of the country pursing different lives, not speaking to each other.  They have not seen their mother in a few years, since an unpleasant get together which ending in fight.

The first plot twist is that now their grandmother has died and in her will she brings them all back to the  last family home where they lived with Helen. One of the last requests she specifies that they should all sit shiva together.   At the end of the week when the will is read, the house has been left to Deborah, Helen's daughter and the kids mother.  The assets are to be divided between the three children, Ashley, the eldest, married with two children, Jake the middle son, unemployed movie writer, and Beck, the youngest, a paralegal.  Each of these adult children are in some form of financial trouble and personal disgrace.

Their personal lives are in turmoil.  

Beck gets one more special gift from her grandmother, the Florence diamond.  The diamond is set in an old style brooch.  But it turns out to be worth a fortune.  Can the three siblings work together with their mother to find out how Helen came to be in possession of this heirloom and if they really have a claim to own it.  

We follow each of these characters progressing toward the truth about how Helen escaped the Holocaust and what happened to her family.  Researching the valuable diamond and how it came into Helen's possession.  Along the way they each learn something about themselves and are growing up as they move closer to the truth about their grandmother.

This book is fast paced, intriguing and brings together the collapse of the Austrian government government with the Holocaust.  Just touching on the history to give the reader something new to learn and keeping the story light and easy to follow with a good twist at the end.