Anne Raeff

A family displaced by World War II finds a new home in Central America, only to watch their fortunes rise and fall on the back of a revolution--from the California Book Award silver medalist and Simpson Literary Prize finalist. Fleeing the ravages of wartime Vienna, Pepa and her family find safe harbor in the small town of El Castillo, on the banks of the San Juan River in Nicaragua. There her parents seek to eradicate yellow fever while Pepa falls under the spell of the jungle and the town's eccentric inhabitants. But Pepa's life―including her relationship with local boy Guillermo―comes to a halt when her family abruptly moves to New York, leaving the young girl disoriented and heartbroken. As the years pass, Pepa's and Guillermo's lives diverge, and Guillermo's homeland slips into chaos. Nicaragua soon becomes engulfed in revolutionary fervor as the Sandinista movement vies for the nation's soul. Guillermo's daughter transforms into an accidental revolutionary. Pepa's son defies his parents' wishes and joins the revolution in Nicaragua, only to disappear into the jungle. It will take decades before the fates of these two families converge again, revealing how love, grief, and passion are intertwined with a nation's destiny. Through many generations and several wars, Only the River explores the way displacement both destroys two families and creates new ones, sparking a revolution that changes their lives in the most unexpected ways.

Only the River

Stories about embracing the world though the world contains everything we fear.

Stories

The Jungle Around Us

A bold and haunting novel that sets love against the brutality of WWII and post-war life from the author of The Jungle Around Us, Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award. Ulli is a young woman squatting in a dismal, empty Berlin apartment, one year after the war has ended. She's scraping together a living as an interppreter between American GIs and the wide-eyed local girls eager to meet them. One night, Ulli meets two soldiers who will change her life: Leo, handsome and ambitious and desperate to escape his small-town upbringing; and intellectual, asthmatic Isaac, whose refugee parents had fled Russia for New York.

A Novel

Winter Kept Us Warm

When I was younger, I wished I had been born in a concentration camp like my mother instead of in boring Englewood Hospital. I used to imagine all the prisoners crying mutely with joy while my grandmother lay swallowing her screams so the guards wouldn't hear. So writes Deborah Gelb, the teenage daughter of the title character, in her opening chapter. Deborah's voice is complemented by that of Ruth Mondschein, Clara's mother, who recounts her life story to Tommy, a patient at the AIDS hospice where she volunteers. Through the alternating narratives of Deborah and Mrs. Mondschein, Clara Mondschein's Melancholia depicts the lives of three generations of women as both daughter and mother attempt to make sense of Clara's "melancholia" and the historical events that profoundly affected them all. While the novel is set in mid-1990s New York and suburban New Jersey, Deborah's and Mrs. Mondschein's stories move through much of the twentieth century, from Vienna and Czechoslovakia, to Spain and Morocco. At the heart of this ambitious novel is the question of why some people are strengthened by adversity - even something as horrific as genocide - while others are defeated by it. Clara Mondschein's Melancholia examines with bravado and sensitivity how the lingering effects of one of history's darkest hours - including guilt, anger, loyalty and hope - live on in a single family.

Clara Mondschein's Melancholia

"Every word here feels set down with care and fierce conscience. The resulting narrative glows." —San Francisco Chronicle A novel of rich details and landscapes, Winter Kept Us Warm follows three friends through six decades — from postwar Berlin to Manhattan, 1960s Los Angeles to contemporary Morocco. A twisting narrative reveals their mysteries in fragments, examining their long–ago love triangle and how it changed their lives forever. "This novel is a profound success that manages to take its place in the canon of excellent war literature while also maintaining a kind of magical surreality . . . This is an astonishing read, a best–of, and a masterful treatise on enduring." —Lambda Literary

When I was younger, I wished I had been born in a concentration camp like my mother, instead of in boring Englewood Hospital. I used to imagine all the prisoners crying mutely with joy while my grandmother lay swallowing her screams so the guards wouldn’t hear. So writes Deborah Gelb, the teenage daughter of the title character, in her opening chapter. Deborah’s voice is complemented by that of Ruth Mondschein – Clara’s mother, who recounts her life story to Tommy, a patient at the AIDS hospice where she volunteers. In alternating chapters, Deborah and Mrs Mondschein depict the lives of three generations of women as both daughter and mother attempt to make sense of Clara’s 'melancholia' and the historical events that profoundly affected them all. While the novel is set in mid-1990s New York and suburban New Jersey, Deborah and Mrs Mondschein’s stories move through much of the twentieth century, from Vienna and Czechoslovakia, to Spain and Morocco. At the heart of this ambitious novel is the question of why some people are strengthened by adversity – even something as horrific as genocide – and others are defeated by it. Clara Mondschein’s Melancholia examines with bravado and sensitivity how the lingering effects of one of history’s darkest hours – including guilt, anger, loyalty and hope – live on in a single family.

Anne Raeff

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