Fic­tion

The New­com­ers

Lily Poritz Miller
  • Review
By – August 1, 2014

This short nov­el tells the poignant sto­ry of Sara Hoff­man, a recent­ly wid­owed moth­er who brings her fam­i­ly from Cape Town, South Africa to live in a small New Eng­land town. Her broth­er, Mey­er, spon­sors the fam­i­ly and is laud­ed by the com­mu­ni­ty for his char­i­ta­ble efforts.” Sara and Mey­er have been estranged, but since they have lost all their fam­i­ly in East­ern Europe they wish to rec­on­cile. Sara works hard to pro­vide for her fam­i­ly but it is a hard adjust­ment for her and the chil­dren to fit into their new place. The author beau­ti­ful­ly describes the for­mer and cur­rent lifestyle of these immi­grants and the reac­tions of each fam­i­ly mem­ber to the changes: love and loss, rais­ing chil­dren, immi­gra­tion, fam­i­ly loy­al­ty, the hard­ships of grow­ing up, and reflec­tions on mak­ing impor­tant life deci­sions. This is a love­ly sto­ry suit­able for young adults as well. The New­com­ers is a sequel to the author’s pre­vi­ous­ly pub­lished book A Pale Blue Light, but it stands alone beau­ti­ful­ly. I look for­ward to back­track­ing and read­ing that tale about a Jew­ish girl grow­ing up in 1940s Cape Town.

Relat­ed content:

  • A Jew­ish-Russ­ian Writer as New Eng­lan­der: Part 2 of a 3‑Part Con­ver­sa­tion by Max­im D. Shrayer
  • The Gallery of Van­ished Hus­bands by Natasha Solomon
  • The Lion Seek­er by Ken­neth Bonnert
  • Miri­am Brad­man Abra­hams is a Cuban-born, Brook­lyn-raised, Long Island-resid­ing mom. She is Hadas­sah Nas­sau’s One Region One Book chair­la­dy, a free­lance essay­ist, and a cer­ti­fied yoga instruc­tor who has loved review­ing books for the JBC for the past ten years.

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