The Invisible Wall
- 336bladzijden
- 12 uur lezen
Harry Bernstein was born into a world of hardship and suffering in a northern mill town, in the shadow of the First World War.
Harry Bernstein Boeken
Harry Bernstein begon op zijn negentigste met schrijven, waarbij hij zich na de dood van zijn vrouw op zijn verleden richtte om thema's als vooroordelen, familiale liefde en het overwinnen van tegenspoed te onderzoeken. Zijn werken duiken in de complexiteit van identiteit en intergenerationele relaties, en weerspiegelen een leven gekenmerkt door ontmoetingen met antisemitisme en interculturele romantiek. Bernstein's proza onderscheidt zich door zijn rauwe eerlijkheid en diepe inzicht in de menselijke conditie, en biedt een uniek perspectief op veerkracht en de zoektocht naar betekenis. Zijn schrijven viert uiteindelijk de blijvende kracht van de menselijke geest.
Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century America, the story follows Harry Bernstein and his mother as they escape their challenging life in England for a brighter future. Their journey begins with a mysterious gift of steamship tickets, leading them to Chicago, where they initially enjoy newfound comforts. However, the Great Depression brings harsh challenges, revealing family secrets and dangers. Amidst the turmoil, Harry's love for Ruby emerges, offering hope and fulfillment, ultimately realizing his mother’s dreams of a better life.
The narrow street where Harry Bernstein grew up, in a small English mill town, was identical to countless other streets in countless other working-class neighborhoods of the early 1900s, except for the "invisible wall" that ran down its center, dividing Jewish families on one side from Christian families on the other. On the eve of World War I, Harry's family struggles to make ends meet. His father earns little money at the Jewish tailoring shop and brings home even less, preferring to spend his wages drinking and gambling. Harry's mother, devoted to her children and fiercely resilient, survives on her dreams: new shoes that might secure Harry's admission to a fancy school; that her daughter might marry the local rabbi; that the entire family might one day go to America. Then Harry's older sister does the unthinkable: she falls in love with a Christian boy from across the street.--From publisher description
On a narrow cobbled street in a northern mill town young Harry Bernstein and his family face a daily struggle to make ends meet. But the regular pleas to relatives in Chicago yield nothing, until one day, when Harry is twelve years old, the family looks on astonished as he opens a letter which contains the longed-for steamship tickets.
Der vierjährige Harry wird zum heimlichen Boten von Liebesbriefen eines jüdisch-christlichen Paares. Als die Beziehung entdeckt wird, wird das Mädchen ins Ausland verbannt. Auch Harrys Schwester Lily wehrt sich gegen die Zwangsheiratspläne ihrer Mutter mit einem Rabbi. Bernsteins Erinnerungen sind spannend und aktuell.
Il sogno infinito
- 319bladzijden
- 12 uur lezen
Il giardino dorato
- 233bladzijden
- 9 uur lezen
Si conobbero a un ballo alla Webster Hall di New York e si innamorarono fin dal primo sguardo. Era il 1935 e poco dopo Harry e Ruby erano sposati. Dal loro primo appartamento, una stanza ammobiliata nell’Upper West Side, agli anni nel Greenwich Village, al centro della scena artistica newyorchese e circondati da ballerini, musicisti e scrittori, fino alla scelta di trasferirsi in una comunità per anziani nel New Jersey, la loro è la parabola del grande sogno americano. Insieme, attraverso la Grande Depressione, la guerra mondiale, il Maccartismo. Insieme, nei momenti duri – licenziamenti, crisi – e in quelli felici – l’acquisto della prima casa, la nascita dei due figli. Una storia d’amore durata quasi settant’anni.Poi succede l’inevitabile: Ruby si ammala di leucemia e muore. Uno dei due doveva essere il primo, lo sapevano, ma Harry rimane improvvisamente solo: un’esperienza del tutto nuova e devastante. Così si mette a scrivere.
