Book Pick: Long Island Reads

This year's Long Island Reads selection is The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman.  It's a moving story of two young lovers torn apart by the horrors of the Holocaust. 

Josef Kohn is at his grandson's wedding when he sees a familiar face he can't quite place.  While speaking to the woman, he asks to see her arm, which bears the permanent reminder of the Holocaust.  "Lenka, it's me," he said.  "Josef.  Your husband."

Before the Nazis' occupation of Czechoslovakia, Lenka is a promising young art student and Josef is studying medicine.  They meet, fall in love and marry right before Czech Jews are rounded up for Terezin, a holding camp for deportation to the concentration camps.  While Josef can secure boat passage to America for Lenka, he cannot do so for her family.  Lenke remains behind while Josef and his family set sail for America.

Through Richman's beautiful prose, we see and experience Lenka's fate at Terezin, where atrocities and dehumanizing occur.  We feel Josef's loss when he thinks Lenka has died in the concentration camps.  This is a story of love and tragedy that trancends time and brings you joy and heartbreak with every page.  Highly recommended.

Alyson Richman will be appearing at the Plainview-Old Bethpage Library on Sunday, April 22nd at 2pm.  Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

Long Island Reads is "an Island-wide reading initiative, sponsored by the Nassau Library System and the Public Libraries of Suffolk County."  For more information, please visit www.longislandreads.org.