Jessamyn Hope

I won my copy in a giveaway. There were a number of things I liked about this book, and others I didn't, which was the difference between my 3 rating and giving it a 4. I had the audio book, and I really enjoyed the narration. I'm no expert, but I thought she was very good with the different accents and portrayals of the characters to be consistent with the way they are presented by the author.

I love reading WWII fiction, and am always thrilled to find some new twist, and this is definitely the first thing I have ever read about an Israeli kibbutz. The flashback to the start of the brooch's story seven hundred or so years ago was a nice surprise. I enjoyed the story lines with Zeva and Claudette and Ofir. Unfortunately, I don't do really well with people who are really flawed and substance abuse. So the story lines around Adam and Ulya were nowhere near as pleasant for me.

The time shift to the present was a shock, and the beginning of a downhill slide into an ending where nothing has ended. It was very dissatisfying, and such a surprise that I went back on the cd convinced I had missed something. These are just my personal preferences though - the writing is well done, and I am sure many other readers will be attracted by the same things that I didn't care for.… (mehr)

The novel focuses on the lives of individuals on a kibbutz. With the exception of Ofir, a young man who aspires to be a famous musician, and Claudette, a young Canadian woman who was raised in an orphanage believing she was mentally ill, it was difficult to connect or feel much sympathy for the other main characters -- Adam, a young American who has come from NYC to Israel to find his late grandfather's long lost love and to escape a life of alcohol and drugs; Ziva, an avowed socialist and one of the original founders of the kibbutz; her son Eyal; Ulya, a young Russian woman whose only way to secure a visa to get out of Russia was to claim she was Jewish; and Farid, a young Palestinian who is a laborer on the kibbutz. It took me awhile to get into the book and I probably would not have read it if it were not a selection for one of my bookclubs. It will be interesting to read other reviews of this book.… (mehr)