A must-read historical novel that’s both brilliant and disturbing by S.C. Potter

From Silt and Ashes: Sequel to Please Say Kaddish For Me by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Artwork by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

All power to Rochelle Wisoff-Field’s brilliant writing, this sequel to Please Say Kaddish For Me left me even more emotionally drained than its predecessor. Even though Havah, plus some of her family and friends have managed to escape persecution, if not certain death in Czarist Russia at the hands of thugs who profess to be Christians, they still have family and friends back home who haven’t the money or means to escape.

Although most of the story is set in the US, which is far from perfect re openly expressed discrimination towards the Russian-Jewish immigrants, an excursion back to Russia reminds the reader of the horrors that befell those left behind.

For once, I’m left a little speechless as to what to say in a review because this novel makes me feel so angry that humanity was and still is capable of such stupidity and sheer evil. But it also fills me with hope that when faced with such evil, love can bind the sufferers together in a bond that transcends life.

Read this book, if you are feeling strong. It’s a part of history that is seldom talked about, but it resonates across time. To quote the chorus of Pete Seger’s well-known 1960’s song “Where have all the Flowers Gone?”, it makes me ask the question “when will they (people) ever learn?”