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Connective tissue
South-West Scotland, 2010. Air-traffic controller Helena's baby is born with unexplained paralysis. Faced with an unforgiving medical establishment, she turns to the Jewish grandmother she never knew, unfolding the past in search of answers. Berlin, 1937. Single mother and kitchen hand Dora struggles in a city growing increasingly hostile, with questions being asked of bloodlines and identity. Will she always be alone? And how long will she and her daughter be able to call this home? Based on extensive research into Eleanor Thom's lost family history, Connective Tissue is a story of migration, motherhood, and our need to know the people and places that make us.
320 pages, Paperback
Published September 6, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 5, 2024
In her afterword to her novel "Connective Tissue", Eleanor Thom writes: "The line between fiction and non-fiction is an ethical tightrope". She could have written this book as non-fiction, but she chose to write it as fiction, thus allowing her to fill in the missing parts of the story of her grandmother with a plausible narrative, one that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
There are actually two separate but linked narratives with the author presenting them in alternate chapters. One is the story of Helena, an air traffic controller whose child Ash is born with a developmental disorder that the doctors can't explain but that may be the result of the apparently benign tumours in Helena's body. During the birth of her son by Caesarean she has visions of Dora, the German Jewish grandmother who died before she was born. As this narrative progresses, we learn more about Helena's relationship with her husband Matthew, their son Ash and her search for information about her grandmother Dora, the daughter that single parent Dora had while living in Germany who she had to leave behind when she managed to leave, as well as the fate of members of her extended family, most of whom died in the concentration camps. This is written in first person.
The other narrative, written in the third person, is Dora's story. We discover the circumstances of her pregnancy, her stay in the Jewish children's home, her life with her aunt, her move against the odds to Britain, her attempts to get her daughter Ruth Rosa out of Germany and her life in Britain. We experience the love between Dora and her extended family, the horror of having to live as a Jew in the early years of the Nazi regime, the heartbreak of family separation and the experiences of working class Jews in 1930s Germany. When Dora escapes from the antisemitism of Nazi Germany, the life she builds for herself in Britain is far from easy as she experiences poverty, exploitation and anti-German rhetoric.
Combining fact and fiction, autobiography, biography and history, this powerful novel is ultimately about survival and the search for truth.
There are actually two separate but linked narratives with the author presenting them in alternate chapters. One is the story of Helena, an air traffic controller whose child Ash is born with a developmental disorder that the doctors can't explain but that may be the result of the apparently benign tumours in Helena's body. During the birth of her son by Caesarean she has visions of Dora, the German Jewish grandmother who died before she was born. As this narrative progresses, we learn more about Helena's relationship with her husband Matthew, their son Ash and her search for information about her grandmother Dora, the daughter that single parent Dora had while living in Germany who she had to leave behind when she managed to leave, as well as the fate of members of her extended family, most of whom died in the concentration camps. This is written in first person.
The other narrative, written in the third person, is Dora's story. We discover the circumstances of her pregnancy, her stay in the Jewish children's home, her life with her aunt, her move against the odds to Britain, her attempts to get her daughter Ruth Rosa out of Germany and her life in Britain. We experience the love between Dora and her extended family, the horror of having to live as a Jew in the early years of the Nazi regime, the heartbreak of family separation and the experiences of working class Jews in 1930s Germany. When Dora escapes from the antisemitism of Nazi Germany, the life she builds for herself in Britain is far from easy as she experiences poverty, exploitation and anti-German rhetoric.
Combining fact and fiction, autobiography, biography and history, this powerful novel is ultimately about survival and the search for truth.
September 25, 2023
This book will go under the radar and won't get the attention it really deserves. It's well written and compulsive, I especially liked the dual narratives of present day Scotland to World War 2 era Germany and the lived experiences of Jewish refugees to Britain.
But the blurb ultimately doesn't really match up with the book. There's not really any further explanation of Dora's fibroids. It's not clear how the narrator expects to find the answer to Ash's medical issues by researching her family history.
Also why does the narrator's husband, about three quarters of the way through the book go from being supportive and loving to a disinterested antagonist? .
I'm also uneasy about writing historical fiction about your own family. It really does walk an ethical tightrope. That being said, the author does acknowledge this in the comprehensive afterword.
I think this was let down by under attentive editing (I noticed some continuity errors and typos as I got to the end of the book) and with a bit of tightening up of the plot and characters would make this a four star read.
But the blurb ultimately doesn't really match up with the book. There's not really any further explanation of Dora's fibroids. It's not clear how the narrator expects to find the answer to Ash's medical issues by researching her family history.
Also why does the narrator's husband, about three quarters of the way through the book go from being supportive and loving to a disinterested antagonist? .
I'm also uneasy about writing historical fiction about your own family. It really does walk an ethical tightrope. That being said, the author does acknowledge this in the comprehensive afterword.
I think this was let down by under attentive editing (I noticed some continuity errors and typos as I got to the end of the book) and with a bit of tightening up of the plot and characters would make this a four star read.
January 5, 2025
3.5 rounded down.
First book of 2025! I enjoy a multi-storyline book so this was very up my street. Thom brings attention to the relatively neglected stories of working class Jews in the run up to WWII through Dora’s story and I really loved following her journey, even whilst being heartbroken at the whole ordeal. The other storyline with Helena and Ash was also wonderfully written yet deeply sad. My reason for not giving a higher rating is that it felt the author was trying perhaps too hard to connect two unrelated stories. I think if there was some definitive connection between Ash’s condition and Helena’s lineage that would have been a cleaner read. This however may be connected to the authors rightfully identified struggle with drawing the line between fiction and non fiction (with this being largely inspired by the authors own family). Life usually lacks tidy endings and well defined connections. Overall though, I enjoyed this and will look out for more books by Thom!
Side note: the cover art is lovely
First book of 2025! I enjoy a multi-storyline book so this was very up my street. Thom brings attention to the relatively neglected stories of working class Jews in the run up to WWII through Dora’s story and I really loved following her journey, even whilst being heartbroken at the whole ordeal. The other storyline with Helena and Ash was also wonderfully written yet deeply sad. My reason for not giving a higher rating is that it felt the author was trying perhaps too hard to connect two unrelated stories. I think if there was some definitive connection between Ash’s condition and Helena’s lineage that would have been a cleaner read. This however may be connected to the authors rightfully identified struggle with drawing the line between fiction and non fiction (with this being largely inspired by the authors own family). Life usually lacks tidy endings and well defined connections. Overall though, I enjoyed this and will look out for more books by Thom!
Side note: the cover art is lovely
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2024
Hard, impressed as I am, to know how to review this. In part because, while much of my admiration is for the effort taken, the researches, the trips and the interviews conducted, the bulk of it is for the ability to imagine, to make real to the reader the undoubted drama of Dora's life. In addition, it doesn't entirely fulfill my expectation of some cause/effect information about Ash's difficulties; I'm far from sure Helena got the answers she was hoping for. Nevertheless, a valuable example of how to tell one's family history.
March 18, 2025
I was initially drawn to the book for its title which tickles my English student brain, and as I read it I could tell that it was also written by an English student because it contains many clever interconnectivities and meditations on time, space and belonging. I found the book deeply moving and existential at times, but it was also a bit much to read sometimes, and I resonated a lot more with the second part than the first. My edition also has some minor editing errors. Overall a great read.
July 19, 2024
Utterly beautiful book. The parallel storylines/timeframes are compelling and absorbing - totally immersive. What a wonderful writer Eleanor Thom is. And well done, Taproot, for publishing it. This must surely be a future prizewinner?
December 15, 2023
Beautiful and heartbreaking. This is a wonderful book. Highly recommended.
December 8, 2023
Connective Tissue is a dual-timeline story set in Scotland in 2010 and Berlin in the 1930s. Helena is an air-traffic controller pregnant with her first baby, forced into a long hospital stay due to complications. When her baby is born he suffers from a kind of paralysis which has no obvious explanation. Looking back through her family roots, Helena starts to consider whether it might be a genetic condition and embarks on a journey to find out more about Dora, the grandmother she didn't know very well. Dora was a German Jew, a single mother unable to look after her daughter full-time in a country where her safety, and that of her family, was threatened more and more by the day.
The title of this book is clever, referring both to a medical condition that both Helena and Dora have, and to the connective tissue that binds them together through the generations of their family. There's also a theme of trees running throughout the book which felt like a metaphor for the family tree. Eleanor Thom's writing is contemplative and powerful, and knowing that she is in effect writing about her own family in fictionalised form makes this story even stronger and even more compelling. I didn't find it to be a quick read but it's a worthwhile one.
Connective Tissue is a haunting and moving story of motherhood and migration, and the invisible threads that link us to the past and made us who we are.
The title of this book is clever, referring both to a medical condition that both Helena and Dora have, and to the connective tissue that binds them together through the generations of their family. There's also a theme of trees running throughout the book which felt like a metaphor for the family tree. Eleanor Thom's writing is contemplative and powerful, and knowing that she is in effect writing about her own family in fictionalised form makes this story even stronger and even more compelling. I didn't find it to be a quick read but it's a worthwhile one.
Connective Tissue is a haunting and moving story of motherhood and migration, and the invisible threads that link us to the past and made us who we are.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews