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Title details for Between Gods by Alison Pick - Available

Between Gods

A Memoir

by Alison Pick
ebook
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From the Man Booker-nominated author of the novel Far to Go and one of our most talented young writers comes an unflinching, moving and unforgettable memoir about family secrets and the rediscovered past.
     Alison Pick was born in the 1970s and raised in a supportive, loving family. She grew up laughing with her sister and cousins, and doting on her grandparents. Then as a teenager, Alison made a discovery that instantly changed her understanding of her family, and her vision for her own life, forever. She learned that her Pick grandparents, who had escaped from the Czech Republic during WWII, were Jewish—and that most of this side of the family had died in concentration camps. She also discovered that her own father had not known of this history until, in his twenties, he had a chance encounter with an old family friend—and then he, too, had kept the secret from Alison and her sister.
    In her early thirties, engaged to be married to her longtime boyfriend but struggling with a crippling depression, Alison slowly but doggedly began to research and uncover her Jewish heritage. Eventually she came to realize that her true path forward was to reclaim her history and indentity as a Jew. But even then, one seemingly insurmountable problem remained: her mother wasn't Jewish, so technically Alison wasn't either. In this by times raw, by times sublime memoir, Alison recounts her struggle with the meaning of her faith, her journey to convert to Judaism, her battle with depression, and her path towards facing and accepting the past and embracing the future—including starting a new family of her own. This is her unusual and gripping story, told in crystalline prose and with all the nuance and drama of a novel, but illuminated with heartbreaking insight into the very real lives of the dead, and hard-won hope for the lives of all those who carry on after.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 2, 2014

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780385677899

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780385677899
      • File size: 2480 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 9, 2015
      Pick, a bestselling Canadian poet and author, describes being caught between beliefs in this thoughtful memoir. After being raised in a Christian household, she discovers that her father's grandparents fled the Czech Republic at the beginning of WWII, escaping the imminent genocide of their Jewish relatives and friends. Her grandparents landed in Canada and began a new life as converted Christians. The long-kept secret sends Pick into a gut-wrenching search for some truth in a seemingly endless stream of secrets. As a married woman in her 30s, Pick, now suffering from depression, embarks on a personal search by reaching out to her local Jewish community. In her interactions and moments of discovery, she becomes inspired to write a novel (Far to Go), which borrows heavily from her family's story of persecution at the hands of the Third Reich. Now more determined than ever to reclaim her Jewish heritage, she begins her conversion to Judaism, at first underestimating the complexity involved in pursuing such a goal. Pick writes her memoir by combining her fight against deep depression with the tenacious sense of hope she maintains in recovering her true identity as a Jew. She finds that everything she ever believed, and all that she hopes to believe, can be found in family, truth, tradition, and God.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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