What do you think?
Rate this book
Distant Sons
From the Jewish ghetto of tiny Frauenkirchen in nineteenth-century Austria-Hungary to a tight-knit Catholic community in the American Midwest at the turn of the twentieth century, Distant Sons explores connections and separation, theme and variation in the lives of two generations. It is the dramatic story of Miriam and Magdalena, a mother and daughter from different worlds in different times, and the choices they questions of love, commitment, fulfillment, and survival. Their decisions about faith and family, love and loss, search and surrender will not only map out the courses of their own lives, but also shape their legacy in generations to come, down to the present day. Based on and inspired by real events and people, Distant Sons is a saga of love across cultures and a testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the resilience of ordinary people.
299 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 3, 2018
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 31, 2019
I read a lot, and I enjoy the books I read – I've learned by now that if I'm not enjoying a book, I don't have to finish it. Once in a very great while, I read a book that will stay with me, probably for the rest of my life, and that I know I'll read again, maybe more than once.
DISTANT SONS is one of those rare books.
It's almost nothing like the other books I've read by Lior Samson, except in the sense that once I'd started it I found it hard to put down for meals or bedtime or necessary tasks. It's suspenseful and deeply moving. It's a historical novel, set in the present and several pasts. It's a love story – no, two (at least two) love stories. It's a mystery and a philosophical debate. It's a memoir.
Is it fact or fiction? Yes. Both, and I'm less sure now than I've ever been about the distinction between those two things. I know, personally (and surprisingly) that at least one of the factual aspects of the book is accurate, because I lived for one of the decades it covers in one of the tiny towns the narrator mentions, was schooled for seven years by the order of nuns that figures in the story, and may even have known personally one of the people on whom a major character is based. That doesn't happen every day. But even if that weren't a fact (and how do you know it's a fact? I'm a writer, one of those people who make things up on a regular basis), I know that the book is true. It's true in the way some very good books, some great ones even, are always true: it's a real story of what it's like to be alive. It enlarged my experience of being human.
Highly recommended!
DISTANT SONS is one of those rare books.
It's almost nothing like the other books I've read by Lior Samson, except in the sense that once I'd started it I found it hard to put down for meals or bedtime or necessary tasks. It's suspenseful and deeply moving. It's a historical novel, set in the present and several pasts. It's a love story – no, two (at least two) love stories. It's a mystery and a philosophical debate. It's a memoir.
Is it fact or fiction? Yes. Both, and I'm less sure now than I've ever been about the distinction between those two things. I know, personally (and surprisingly) that at least one of the factual aspects of the book is accurate, because I lived for one of the decades it covers in one of the tiny towns the narrator mentions, was schooled for seven years by the order of nuns that figures in the story, and may even have known personally one of the people on whom a major character is based. That doesn't happen every day. But even if that weren't a fact (and how do you know it's a fact? I'm a writer, one of those people who make things up on a regular basis), I know that the book is true. It's true in the way some very good books, some great ones even, are always true: it's a real story of what it's like to be alive. It enlarged my experience of being human.
Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 of 1 review