New Novel THE SISTER KNOT to be Published

My novel The Sister Knot will be published by Vine Leaves Press, my fifth book with them! The Sister Knot unravels the fraught but resilient female friendship that endures despite the damage of childhood trauma. The story is told from the dual perspectives of World War Two orphans who survive on Berlin’s streets by cunning, theft, and prostitution. Brought to the U. S. by a Jewish refugee agency, their lives diverge when one is adopted and the other ends up in a group home. Frima, the adopted girl, appears to live the American dream. Yet later in life her trajectory reverses course. By contrast, Liane’s years are a downward slide. Not until middle age does she turn her life around. The novel follows their seesawing relationship through school and work, marriage and motherhood, incarceration and death. They drift apart or fight, but always come back together. Two sculptures that Liane makes for Frima — “Sisters” in childhood and “Knot” as they enter adulthood — represent the unbreakable tie between these unforgettable women.

The book will be released in April 2024. Meanwhile, you can look forward to reading my next book, One Person’s Loss, in just three months, on September 22, 2022. And a three e-book collection of On the Shore, Tazia and Gemma, and The Great Stork Derby will be available as Love, Loss, and Secrets on June 14th. It can be pre-ordered or you can purchase individual print and electronic copies of each book now. More on all my books in NOVELS.

WWII orphans often formed their own “family” groups
Why writers write: “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” – Albert Camus

Bad Dad Tale: Com-icky

Movie director Woody Allen’s sexual behavior with his daughters is not the stuff of comedy. At age 56, he had a relationship with the 21-year-old adopted daughter of his then partner, Mia Farrow; they later married. He was also accused of molesting the young daughter he and Farrow adopted together. Allen continued to work, but his reputation never recovered. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

51-year-old Woody made woo-woo with his 21-year-old stepdaughter, a social no-no
Toronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize