Fic­tion

Red Anemones

  • From the Publisher
September 1, 2025

Mov­ing among gen­er­a­tions of a Ger­man-Jew­ish-Amer­i­can fam­i­ly, Red Anemones is a poignant explo­ration of the intri­cate bonds, untold secrets, and unspo­ken lega­cies our ances­tors bestow upon us. Inspired by a true sto­ry, the book chron­i­cles Natal­ie Barlow’s jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery that begins when her mother’s sud­den death opens a Pandora’s box of unre­vealed fam­i­ly secrets dat­ing back to pre-WWII Ger­many. As Natal­ie nav­i­gates the com­plex­i­ties of her new­ly dis­cov­ered Jew­ish iden­ti­ty, she comes face to face with the ear­ly 20th-cen­tu­ry Ger­man-Jew­ish immi­grant expe­ri­ence and the pre­vail­ing Amer­i­can anti­semitism. As the per­son­al cost this ugly real­i­ty extract­ed from her own fam­i­ly is revealed, Natal­ie is com­pelled to con­front her new­ly dis­cov­ered iden­ti­ty as a Jew and decide whether to embrace or deny this her­itage. Like Israel’s red anemones car­pet­ing the west­ern Negev and Dvi­ra For­est of the Judean foothills year after year, Natal­ie is deter­mined to find the courage, resilien­cy and pas­sion to embrace the changes that bring new begin­nings in an uncer­tain world where anti­semitism remains alive as an ongo­ing real­i­ty for Jews everywhere.

Discussion Questions