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Fiction Jewish

The Girl Who Was Born That Way

by (author) Gail Benick

Publisher
Inanna Publications
Initial publish date
Jun 2015
Category
Jewish, Siblings, Historical, Literary
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781771332132
    Publish Date
    Apr 2015
    List Price
    $19.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781771332149
    Publish Date
    Jun 2015
    List Price
    $9.99

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Description

The Girl Who Was Born That Way is the story of the Berk family, not exactly an ordinary Jewish family, trying to bury its Holocaust past while starting over in post-war USA. The novel centers on the dynamics between the family’s four daughters, the two oldest girls who grew up in the Lodz Ghetto and he two youngest who came of age in an idyllic American suburb. The story is told from the perspective of the youngest child in the family, whose sisterly love and compassion drive the novel’s action. Can her curiosity bring the family’s dark Holocaust history into the open? Can she save her anorexic third sister whose short stature and physical anomalies are a source of family embarrassment and shame? The Girl Who Was Born That Way considers the life of immigrants living in the diaspora, the miracle of their survival and their helplessness when faced with the disabling condition of their third daughter.

About the author

Gail Benick is a professor in the humanities at Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Oakville, Ontario. Her teaching and research focus on immigration, diaspora and storytelling. Her work has appeared in Jewish Fiction. Net and the Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, among other publications.

Gail Benick's profile page