Stephan R. Frenkel

Clara’s Secret by Stephan R. Frenkel
A Creative Non-fiction Narrative

Imagine a time of peace and stability throughout Europe and the Americas, when a progressive modern age reached an apotheosis before World War was known to mankind. The Belle Époque, or Beautiful Era, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was such a time. Clara’s Secret is an engaging story of a young woman living through adolescence in Berlin as she and the imperial city experience a personal and cultural transformation as the Époque progressed. The Prussian capital became a pivotal city that was magnetic to the greatest personalities of the age. Mark Twain, Isadora Duncan, Enrico Caruso, Richard Strauss and Theodore Roosevelt are only a few of the celebrities who thrived in the great metropolis. Authors, artists, philanthropists, royalty and statesmen provide a multidimensional portrayal of this remarkable period. The setting is enlivened by dramatic events of the era.
A quarter century later, having survived World War I and on the threshold of World War II, Clara and members of her immediate family were individually forced to leave their city of origin. Traveling with only her memories, Clara’s odyssey into an uncertain future contrasted with the evolution of an emerging Berlin, offers a spellbinding account of past eras set against a tableau of unfolding tragedy.
Clara’s journey through the most wonderful years of her young life and the most terrifying years of her adult life provides a description of the most consequential periods of modern human existence. Her experiences trace the story of flourishing and deteriorating culture in the early twentieth century. Clara’s Secret is ultimately a provocative story of the advancement of mankind and the survival of its decline.