Send For Me

Description

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick* *An Indie Next Great Read* '[A] vivid depiction of a family's heartbreak, its rending and rebuilding.' - Clare Lombardo, New York Times Book Review 'Spanning generations and continents, from pre-WWII Germany to current day midwestern America, Send For Me is a richly imagined testament to the ties that bind.' Whitney Scharer Germany 1930s. Annelise is a dreamer: imagining her future while working at her parents' popular bakery in Feldenheim, Germany, anticipating all the delicious possibilities yet to come. There are rumours that anti-Jewish sentiment is on the rise, but Annelise and her parents can't quite believe that it will affect them; they're hardly religious at all. But as Annelise falls in love, marries, and gives birth to her daughter Ruthie, the dangers grow closer: a brick thrown through her window; a childhood friend who cuts ties with her; customers refusing to patronise the bakery. Luckily Annelise and her husband are given the chance to leave for America, but they must go without her parents, whose future and safety are uncertain. Two generations later, in a small Midwestern city, Ruthie's daughter and Annelise's granddaughter, Clare, is a young woman newly in love. But when she stumbles upon her grandmother's letters from Germany, she sees the history of her family's sacrifices in a new light, and suddenly she's faced with an impossible choice: the past, or her future. A novel of dazzling emotional richness that is based on letters from Lauren Fox's own family, Send for Me is an epic and intimate exploration of mothers and daughters, duty and obligation, hope and forgiveness.

Lauren Fox is the author of the novels Still Life with Husband, Friends Like Us, and Days of Awe. She lives in Milwaukee with her family.

An anthropological excavation... It is haunted throughout by the endlessly fascinating question of inheritance. How much of our stories - and which parts - truly belong to us?... The book is a real achievement - beautifully written, deeply felt, tender and thoughtful... The storytelling is patient, generous... The major accomplishment of Send for Me [is] its vivid depiction of a family's heartbreak, its rending and rebuilding. * Clare Lombardo, New York Times Book Review * A sense of foreboding shadows this bittersweet intergenerational tale of love and trauma... Subtle, striking, and punctuated by snippets of family letters.. Fox has imbued this deeply personal, ultimately hopeful novel, which she explains in an author's note is based on her own family's story, with emotion, empathy, and an essential understanding of the complicated bonds between generations and the importance of reckoning with the past in order to embrace the future. An intimate, insightful, intricately rendered story of intergenerational trauma and love. * Kirkus, starred * Fox deftly moves between generations as she illuminates the ways that choices echo through the lives of those who came after. This thoughtful, character-driven exploration of the unbreakable bonds of motherhood will appeal to fans of Alice Hoffman and Elizabeth Berg. * Booklist * A beautifully told story of intergenerational loves and sorrows. * Jennifer Rosner, author of The Yellow Bird Sings * Imbued with lyrical prose, Send For Me is a beautiful tale of heartbreak and renewal, and of the love and loss we carry with us, generation after generation. * Georgia Hunter, author of We Were The Lucky Ones * A rare and beautiful novel in luminous prose with great economy and precision... Fox seems to say, life is threaded with hope and joy and human connection... I loved this book. * Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train * Spanning generations and continents, from pre-WWII Germany to current day midwestern America, Send For Me is a richly imagined testament to the ties that bind... Lauren Fox's first historical novel is moving, heartfelt and filled with love. * Whitney Scharer, author of Age of Light * Fox satisfyingly brings this story of love and desire full circle, as Clare and Ruth reflect on what it means to be both a mother and a child in the darkest of times. This tender and deeply inspired story will move readers. * Publishers Weekly *