Gypsy Tears: Loving a Holocaust Survivor

by Cora T. Schwartz

A beautifully written and important first novel by Cora Schwartz, based on the true story of her life living with a holocaust survivor. In a magical and haunting style, Ms. Schwartz weaves an intense love story that answers the question asked so many times since her husband's death: "What was it really like living with a holocaust survivor?" As Ms. Schwartz carries us along in a grand sweep through Yugoslavia, Russia and Romania in the 1960s, the depth of her relationship with Rudy becomes a tragic work of art as she allows us a peek into the soul of a holocaust victim in an artful and deeply moving way.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Anastasiia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gypsy Tears is not a book about Holocaust and its horrors, though it does touch the painful subject. But first of all, it is a book about life that goes on; about those who survived the horror and must continue living; about their complicated relationship with life, dealing with the everlasting guilt of surviving and living.
It is about human lives connected and interwoven on some timeless, almost magical level.
And wait till you find out what gypsy tears really are!
It feels inadequate to give such mediocre review for such a beautiful important work. The thing is that it's hard to talk and give your opinion about some heavy, complicated, bigger than life subjects (and this book is about such difficult things). It's very deep and haunting. The kind where characters keep on living in some parallel dimension after you finish reading.

[Hobblebush · Rating 5 out of 5]

GYPSY TEARS is the story of Rudy, a Holocaust survivor, and Cora Schwartz. When we meet Rudy he is drinking and gambling himself into oblivion. He is arrogant, angry, but charming, obsessed with his lost childhood, the gypsy girl who disappeared from his life, and the son he never had. Will a naïve, young, Jewish woman from the Bronx keep him alive and help relieve his survivor’s guilt?

Unlike other Holocaust books, Rudy’s heart-wrenching flashbacks do not speak of the horror or torture that happened in twentieth century Europe. Rather, Schwartz uses them to contrast her childhood in the Bronx in the 1940s with that of Rudy’s struggle to survive in a labor camp in Mogelov. In the end, the author discovers an almost unbelievable spiritual link with a deceasedbut famous Ukrainian writer that is cause for celebration.

This autobiographical novel will appeal to readers of all ages; anyone who wants to better understand the damage done to those who survived the Holocaust, and the heartbreak that comes to those who love them.

[Lu]

Love story, history, Hitler's obsession