The Speed of Light

by Elizabeth Rosner

Every family has a story. Every story, eventually, must be told. For most of their lives, Julian Perel and his sister, Paula, lived in a house cast in silence, witnesses to a father struggling with a devastating secret too painful to share. Though their father took his demons to the grave, his past refuses to rest. As adults, brother and sister struggle to find their voices. A scientist governed by numbers and logic, Julian now lives an ordered life of routine and seclusion. My father gave up his language and his homeland. But he carried his sadness with him, under his skin. It was mine now. In contrast, Paula has entered the world as eagerly as Julian retracts from it. An aspiring opera singer, she is always moving, buoyant with sound. Singing was the only gift I could offer to my father. I filled the house with music. I tried to give him joy. . . .Yet both their lives begin to change on a Wednesday, miercoles, the day that sounds like miracles. Before embarking on a European opera tour, Paula asks her housekeeper, Sola, to stay at her place--and to look after Julian in the apartment above. Yet Sola, too, has a story. I want to clean myself like the window of a house, make myself clear for things to pass through. Flat and quiet.As Paula uncovers pieces of her father's early life in Budapest and the horrifying truth of his past, Julian bears witness to Sola's story--revelations that help all three learn how to both surrender and revere the shadows that have followed them for so long.The Speed of Light is a powerful debut about three unforgettable souls who overcome the tragedies of the past to reconnect with one another and the world around them. In an extraordinary accomplishment, Elizabeth Rosner has created a novel of love and redemption that proves the pain of the untold story is far greater than even the most difficult truth.From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Holocaust, Book Club, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Realistic Fiction

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Elizabeth's newest book, "THIRD EAR: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening," will be published by Counterpoint on September 17, 2024. Like her previous book, it's a hybrid of memoir and interdisciplinary research. "SURVIVOR CAFE: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory" (Counterpoint 2017) features a compelling blend of personal narrative, interviews, and extensive research about the inter-generational aftermath of war, genocide, and violence. It was selected as a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award, and Rosner has been interviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered" as well as in The New York Times.

Her third novel ELECTRIC CITY was published by Counterpoint in October 2014, and named one of the best books of the year by National Public Radio. Her full-length poetry collection GRAVITY was published by Atelier26 Books in fall 2014.

Ms. Rosner is the award-winning author of two previous novels: THE SPEED OF LIGHT and BLUE NUDE. The Speed of Light was the recipient of numerous honors, including the Harold U. Ribalow Prize and the Prix France Bleu Gironde; it was short-listed for the prestigious Prix Femina and selected for the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award. The novel has been translated into nine languages. Blue Nude was named one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Elizabeth's writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Elle, The Forward, the Huffington Post, and several anthologies.

A full-time writer, Elizabeth taught literature and creative writing at the college level for 35 years, and continues to lead workshops and seminars at retreat centers and universities throughout the U.S. and internationally. She lives in Berkeley, CA.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

UPDATE …. under the ✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️ emojis


A very beautifully written novel…..
Elizabeth Rosner is a quiet force powerhouse…..


Review soon …. I was totally captivated by this story. (a book I’ve owned for years but hadn’t read)

Rosner wrote the brilliant “Survivor’s Cafe”….. one of the top most beautifully felt -Holocaust themed books ever!!!!….
a very special non fiction book… a favorite!!

This book is fiction - but feels as real as a memoir. A brother and sister heartfelt story!!!

Going back to sleep. Will share more later — but the most important thing to know — Elizabeth Rosner is the real deal…. a very talented- affecting author! She can write!!!
✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️

Update
A little more sharing….

“The Speed of Light”, was Elizabeth Rosner’s first novel
….first published in 2002.

In 2017, Elizabeth published one of the most powerful and memorable non-fiction books called “Survivor Cafe”: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory.
It was an OMG— mind blowing Audiobook—listening experience! I mean POWERFUL… as I wouldn’t have ever wanted to miss it.
At least ‘one-in-ten’ most powerful Audiobooks ‘ever’.

So….
I immediately wanted to read everything else Elizabeth wrote. I purchased this book — and “Blue Nude” — but then life got away from me — and I’m just now finding my way back to Rosner’s books.

One of my reasons for reading “The Speed of Light” now ….
is because… after spending a couple of days spinning my wheels reading other books that were just okay, but not doing much for me—books I tossed and didn’t finish …
I wanted to carefully reach for a book that I was almost 100% certain — I could ‘not’ go wrong.
I knew Elizabeth Rosner was my perfect ‘go to’. Yep.. 100% marvelous!!!

Elizabeth Rosner is a daughter of Holocaust survivors — best selling novelist, poet, and essayist...
she lives in Berkeley, California. I had the pleasure to meet her years ago at a Book Festival.

So….
…more about “The Speed of Light”….(it was translated into nine languages)….
It’s also powerfully affecting as “Survivor’s Cafe” …
In both books - (one fiction, one non-fiction) we see how clear it is that children from Holocaust parents inherited their trauma.

Elizabeth has dedicated her life to understanding—with empathy and compassion—the issues that arise from Holocaust offsprings.

In “The Speed of Light” we get a very captivating story not only about a brother and sister…Julian Perel and his sister Paula…but also a devastating tale - from a housekeeper named Sola -a victim of genocide in Central America.
Paula hired Sola to stay at her apartment while she was away >> to look after her brother, who lived in the apartment above Paula.

Paula was leaving on a European opera tour -and she had sincere good reasons to worry about her brother (Sola staying in her apartment gave Paula comfort that ‘somebody’ would watch over Julian and a few of his basic needs—as she couldn’t be in two places at once)

Julian could still have his privacy and own space - he was a grown adult - with perhaps Asperger’s? — or OCD? — or? ‘something’ in this realm of possibilities (it’s not clear - perhaps just an all-around nerd- but readers get the idea — a little odd — not social (but, I mean who is anymore since covid?)….
Haha…
But Julian had charms that made me giggle — (a few laughs in this story gives the trauma a nice balance)
Julian's secluded lifestyle included a lot of TV’s —
Why all the TV’s ?
READ THIS STORY — and while you find out — the ‘entire’ story with three characters to love and root for will keep you reading — with your own huge heart opening and opening and *opening*!!

I can’t recommend this book enough —
…The characters draw you in.
…Their stories - differences and connections are interesting.

Trauma shows up differently in different people —
Paula and Julian had a father who had horrific experiences in the Holocaust… and we see how differently trauma has affected Paula and Julian -
But then when the housekeepers story gets revealed …
(between these three people) it feels like the space between musical notes is a reminder that beauty and love needs a little separation— varied manifestation styles …(the symbolism was felt throughout)
.....allowing vibrations to resonate together — through breath, silence, and our comparing active minds.....our flaws and humanity oscillate together.

Beautiful book!!!
Highly recommend — a wonderful engaging story!!

“I was singing in the voice of that broken violin, the suffocated cantor, the unspoken agony of my father with the weight of those bodies in his arms. I poured the sound waves back into space. Over and over, I was filled”.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Speed of Light is not a novel to rush through. Take your time and savor the writing and it's nuances. This is a character driven novel and they deserve your undivided attention.

The father is somewhat of a mystery to his children. He shrouds himself in silence and never talks about his past and this has deep repercussions on the family. Julian is a science prodigy and an introvert who rarely leaves his room and is determined to finish writing a dictionary of scientific terms while his 11 TV's are on in the background keeping him company. Paula is Julian's younger sister who has devoted herself to her singing and somewhat of a caretaker of Julian. She is a successful opera singer. Sola is the housekeeper from an unknown city in South America(with the help of the internet and clues in the book, I think she's from Guatemala. These are the things that keep me awake at night). Paula asks Sola to stay at the house and watch over Julian as she heads out on a European tour. Each have their own secrets and burdens to bare.

While on tour, Paula discovers part of her father's past that she never knew. Horrified and unable to sing a note after the discovery, she now understands his silence and gains knowledge of her family's past. Julian is witness to Sola's harrowing former life when an unexpected visitor arrives. The revelations that follow are traumatic as well as self affirming. The longer Paula is away we see a bond build between Julian and Sola. I love the growth of Julian's character and his ability to show affection. As the breaking point of each character is presented, we begin see their strengths, passions and vulnerability. Trusting their deepest secrets, opening up, and letting go of all the guilt and hurt might be the first step in the healing process.

This is a beautifully written novel. I highly recommend.

[Adrianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gillian Anderson made me do it. Even more than the idea to dye my hair red, this was the best idea she ever planted in my brain. The first time I read this book I cried and so I did on the second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. The voice of the three characters are so distinct that I barely needed the different font to differentiate. I believe in tiny miracles. I also believe that I still have more than 30 bookmarks for 30 different sections of the book that I go back and re-read whenever I start to count cracks in the sidewalk too much or think about walls of television sets. At one time, this book was to be made into a film. I hope someday it happens - but then again, I don't because the imagery your mind conjures up is more perfect than anything a screen could put in front of you at the speed of light.

When I was a freshman in college back in 2003, I gave an oral presentation on this book and described the writing as "poetic prose." As it turns out my professor went to UCI with the author. I hope he told her how much her book meant to me. Thank you for writing this book. It's one of my best friends.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like that moment after everything has broken and fallen apart and will never be okay again, and then out of the silence comes an unspeakably beautiful birdsong, hollow and sorrowful and triumphant, and everything ceases to exist outside the song.

Actually, it's almost exactly like that, except not at all cliched. If you started with that image, and wanted to write a story around it, and were an incredibly gifted poet who decided to turn your gifts to novel-writing, this is the book you would come up with.

I loved this book so much. What an elegant, graceful story of survivors and witnesses learning to battle their demons. There are three alternating narrators who present us their lives in vignettes. The author, as I said, is a poet, and I think one of the most remarkable gifts she brings to this story is her ability to gracefully bring this very reflective, introspective story into the extrinsic. The characters are all rooted in very concrete things that wind up intertwining with their journeys. Music. Science. Vegetables. So rich in metaphor, and an absolutely perfect structure for exploring the story. I loved, for instance, how while some characters struggled to find their voices, one was an opera singer--though she has never understood what it is to need to share a story (yet).

This book reaches into some very dark chapters of human history, but as you as the reader explore them you will still feel like you are sitting in that chair on the cover, bathed in golden light, listening to a Bach cello suite. Or a spinto rendition of Ave Maria.

I took my time finishing this book because I couldn't stand for it to be over. I'm saving the extra end material for tomorrow. Really, read it. Let me put this book in your hands.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There are so many languages, and so few words to say what we mean" - just one of the lines from this book that struck a chord with me.

Brother and sister Julian and Paula Perel grew up in a home with deep sadness. Their father, a holocaust survivor, had memories too grim to share, but his children seemed to absorb his pain and it dominated their lives. Julian became a scientist, but could barely leave his apartment, working in solitude on a scientific dictionary. Paula tried to ease her father's pain through singing and eventually became an aspiring opera singer.

As adults Julian lived in an apartment above Paula's. When Paula left on a trip to Europe for auditions, she asked her housekeeper, Sola, to look in on Julian and bring him his lunch. Sola has her own dark secrets, she is the only survivor of a village massacre in an undisclosed country.

The book is written in the three voices of the three main characters. They slowly open up and begin to learn how to live in the world. I have in no way done justice to this sad but beautiful book.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, grudgingly rounded up to 3 because I really couldn't give this the same rating I gave to "A Thousand Splendid Suns." (See what happens once you start with grade inflation?)

Initially, I found the rapidly shifting viewpoints jarring and annoying, and I felt like I just wanted to get into one person’s story and perspective. After a while I did get used to it and found that it moved the book faster; despite that, it’s not my preferred reading style. This was compounded by the fact that I found Paula’s viewpoint/story way more compelling than Sola’s or Julian’s. The Sola-Julian romance was extremely predictable and heavy-handed (could you remind me again that Julian is noticing Sola’s attractiveness or that Sola is fascinated by Julian’s mystery?), and I also thought Rosner was playing up their dovetailing traumatic histories way too much without showing us much else about common ground between them or the developing relationship. Paula’s story, on the other hand, was interesting and a little more complex in my view. I also felt it was written with a slightly lighter touch, although here too, some things (such as her manager's and lover/mentor’s controlling attitudes) were way too obvious and simplistic.

Overall, although the writing was decent I wasn't much enamored of this book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. How to turn "sorrow into song." Once again a wonderful character book. A wonderful read.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I think it is a debut novel, too...quite an achievement. Three very individual and interesting main characters: Julian, a reclusive young man who is something of a scientific prodigy; his sister Paula, an up-and-coming opera singer; and Sola, a young woman from an unnamed South or Central American country who cleans houses for a living. The father of Julian and Paula was a tortured soul, trying to cope with his horrifically painful past, and his suffering has indelibly stamped both children.

Sola is Paula's housekeeper, and she stays in Paula's apartment for a month while Paula goes to Europe to try to make a name for herself. Sola is dealing with terrible demons of her own, as she struggles to reconcile herself to living her life following tragedy in her own country. Julian lives upstairs from Paula, and while she is away, Sola and Julian become acquainted very tentatively.

Different type fonts are used to indicate each character's perspective, as the story unfolds -- a device I found I liked very much. I read the book using the Kindle app, and needed to experiment with which font to use in order for the three fonts to be clearly different, but once I had done that, it was easy to discern whose voice and experience was being presented.

The interactions between characters are beautifully rendered and often very touching and affecting, and I highly recommend this...a most satisfying read.

[Kirby Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel follows the perspectives of three main characters as they cope with personal and familial tragedies. Paula, an opera singer, begins the novel buoyant and free, flying off to Hungary for a singing opportunity. She leaves behind her reclusive brother, Julian, who spends his day writing scientific dictionary entries and watching his beloved array of televisions. Julian, unlike his sister Paula, is crippled by his father's Holocaust past and carries an inherited trauma. Sola, a Spanish cleaning lady enters the picture, asked by Paula to keep an eye on Julian when she travels. Given the rich and nuanced characters, plot takes a backseat to the precise character developments and relationships. Aspects of grief and trauma often feel heavy and repetitive, but Rosner brings together the dispersed symbolism and backstories to a poignant end that renders the novel worth a read.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Speed of Light" is a beautiful and elegant story of lives lived in the shadow of great pain and loss. Told from three different perspectives, it's about the lives of two adult children of a holocaust survivor and a young woman who witnessed the murder of her family and her entire village somewhere in Central or South America. It's well-documented that, while children of holocaust survivors did not actually experience the horror of the holocaust, they do inherit some of the pain, horror, and fear experienced by their parents All three of these individuals have to learn how to live with their pain and move forward in their lives. The prose is beautiful: lyrical, thought-provoking, and evocative. This book receives one of my rare 5 point ratings. Highly recommended.

[Barbara Stark-Nemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We needed the stories to tether us to the world; sharing them among ourselves could keep us connected to the dead and to one another." Such a gifted story shared, and I am tethered to Elizabeth Rosner! In my current campaign to understand the need of second and third generations to Holocaust survivors to find their places in the history and outcomes of that horror, The Speed of Light is a beautiful rendering of inherited memory, the legacy of trauma, and the enduring power of love and devotion as redemption for pain and suffering. So enjoyed the artful shifts in point of view and narrative voice, and the poet's treatment of the natural world alongside these inward characters. Bravo!

[Andrew Stuckey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that has three different narrators with slightly different fonts who are all telling their own version of the same story. At first it was tedious and seemed like it was going to derail an otherwise interesting set of characters. But then the story settles in, the narrative shifts come a little less frequent, and it gets really good. Watching two separate tragedies weave together through characters who end up being in surprisingly similar situations showed The Speed of Light to be more complex than I was originally giving it credit for. It also got more and more enjoyable as it went along. Overall, I would recommend this one.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. A finely crafted story of three survivors living the wounds of their histories, healing each other by witnessing their stories. Rosner writes with kindness, razor sharp perceptions and exquisite sensual details... Her characters are fully-developed and rich. She artfully avoids the maudlin, the obvious, the superfluous... Elegant, eloquent, nary a false step.

[Laurie weinzapfel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was good. Illustrated the power of generational and personal trauma.

[Laurie Connolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When you're a witness, and you tell other people, you make them witnesses too."
...
"Is that bad?" I whisper.
... "No," he says. "That's good."

[Monty J Heying · Rating 5 out of 5]

[This is one of the most powerful scene's I have come across in literature. Isaac, a Jewish symphony conductor, speaks to Paula, a Jewish opera singer who has lost her voice after the shock of learning details about her father’s suffering at Auschwitz. As a ten year-old, the father's job had been to arrange bodies on a pallet so that when they were cremated the fat would collect efficiently for later use. Her father would never discuss what happened, but she wanted to know and had asked someone she met in Europe on tour who knew him in the concentration camp.]

Isaac pounded his chest, gestured with his powerful conductor’s arms. His eyes were so bright and fierce, he looked like he wanted to shake me until I could hear him, until I could swallow the rage he was offering me.

“Hate them, if you need to feel something, but don’t turn against yourself.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, grieve. Be silent for a while. For a while, understand me? Let your voice rest, okay. That’s a good thing. But don’t give the murderers any more chances to kill. They’re finished. And we’re still here, singing, making music. And when you decide to sing, you know what? Sing for them, right? What was she, seven, eight years old? She never even got to play a full-sized instrument. So that’s what you can do to honor the dead, you can sing for her. You can play all the notes she never got to play. It’s your violin now,” he tapped me on the breastbone. “Right here.”

…

“They thought they could make us disappear, and every trace of us too, as if we had never existed at all. But somehow we carried art all the way out of the ashes, created our way back into the world. And every time I stand on my podium, every time I lift my baton for the first sound, I’m thinking about how to repay my debt to the dead.”


[The film version of Liz's book will be Gillian (The X-files, Bleak House) Anderson's directorial debut]

Check out Liz's Facebook Page and don't forget to click "Like" if you like what you see: https://www.facebook.com/elizabethros...

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a reread, because I loved The Speed of Light so much I recommended it for my book group. Dazzled all over again by the gorgeous imagery and by Rosner's characterizations - although we get each of the three main characters' voices only in fragments, a few pages at a time, each character comes across with great nuance and depth. How does she do it?

I've gotten wary of books with Holocaust themes. Is it possible - is it moral - to say the Holocaust can feel overdone or it's such an immediate emotion-grabber that I sometimes feel manipulated by authors? But Rosner does several things that make this more of a look forward than a book that dwells in the past. First, she focuses on two children of a Holocaust survivor, a brother and sister, and the different, in a sense complementary ways their late father's experience - which he never spoke about - reverberates in their lives: Julian has soaked his father's pain and silence into his own bones, and barely leaves his apartment, in which 11 televisions give him a mediated connection to the world, while Paula has used her gift as a singer to escape. But as Julian, in the course book, begins to reclaim his life and his voice, Paula can no longer push the trauma away.

The second difference is that Rosner brings in the survivor of a contemporary mass killing - Sola, a woman whose Central American village was wiped out by government soldiers. It's a risk, to suggest that there are crimes against humanity that can be spoken of in the same breath as the Holocaust. I happen to think it's true and applaud Rosner for Sola, whose idiosyncratic English provides the book's most poetic language and whose befriending of the damaged Julian is so delicately handled - she's like someone gently coaxing a wounded animal - that I didn't for a moment doubt that Julian would respond.

[Jordyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIRST REVIEW (2013): This is one of my new favorite books. When you should be focusing on your studies, not the best book to read because you will NOT put it down. At all! It was all I could think about. I spent months and months thinking of those characters everyday, wondering what they were doing. How they were. What was new. I became obsessed with Julian. This book was written so beautifully and perfectly. I... I have no words left.

SECOND REVIEW (2022): It is not an exaggeration to say that I read A LOT from several different genres, and this has been my favorite book since it was gifted to me by a friend my junior year of college. When I learned it was now available as an audiobook, I jumped in it. I must admit, at first I was startled by the narration. Reading brings the book inside your imagination but somehow, you expect that if the characters were real, they would sound exactly how you imagined. Paula was the only one who sounded as I expected, but I soon realized that these narrations fit the characters well. I listened to this novel slowly because unlike other audiobooks, I didn't want to risk missing things of I multitasked. I rewound several times to listen to my favorite parts over and over again. Since my first experience with this book, I have planned to get a tattoo inspired by it's pages. It only makes sense because I think about these characters constantly, they should live on my skin as well. Should I get "Miercoles, the day that sounds like Miracles," or should I get a yellow lemon that says "Your friend"? I still can't decide. I advice you to not multitask as you listen to this book. Just sit there and be a witness to the story. I could talk about this book forever, but I don't want to ruin anything for first-time readers/listeners. I will just say I've never read a book as poetic as this one. It's quiet yet loud, real but magical.

[Adriana Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Rosner is a beautiful writer. The poetry within these pages of prose is exquisite. And on top of that, she is courageous. She writes this story in three fonts, from the first person voice of three separate, but related, characters. She also tackles the difficult questions regarding the inheritance of tragedy. Two of the characters are dealing with the hidden past of their father, whose numerical tattoo passed along a haunting family story, still to be discovered. The third character has survived a different kind of tragedy in Latin America: witnessing the annihilation of her entire village. The stories intertwine like a braid with each strand developing alone and within the context of the relationships that support each character. The story she gives us is ultimately ours to reflect upon, make sense of, grieve for, and celebrate. I had the honor of meeting Elizabeth briefly before I read The Speed of Light, I wish I'd meet her again to compliment her on an amazing accomplishment.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very good. I heard about it in an interview in Oprah magazine--her feature where she asks celebrities to list their favorite books. I don't even remember the name of the actress, but I'm glad she recommended this book! It's a very moving story of three people who have been damaged by the atrocities of life. They are drawn together and as limited as each of them are, they are able to help each other to heal. It's not an easy book to read, the subject matter is painful at times. It can also be confusing, as it is told from the perspective of three different people, a few paragraphs at a time. Each perspective is set in a different type, but it takes awhile to get used to the format. The writing is beautiful, I re-read many sections because the language was so stunning. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a book that makes you think.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel has 3 narrators: a brother & sister, children of a Holocaust survivor who refused to talk to them about his Holocaust experience; and a housekeeper who was the sole survivor of a Latin American army's destruction of her village. All 3 have very different ways of coping with their inherited grief. The sister throws herself into her life out in the world as an opera singer; the brother almost totally withdraws from the world (I identified with him more than a normal person should); the other character responded more typically, if such a thing can be said. The sections were so short (just a few paragraphs at a time in each voice) that I initially found it difficult to get inside the characters & their stories, but eventually the relationship between the housekeeper & the reclusive brother emerged as a warm & powerfully moving story.

[Nancy Dobson Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It alternates between three very distinct characters who each has a story to tell. The book went in a direction I was not expecting, but the end result was satisfying. You realize, at the end of the novel, that sometimes the bravest thing we can do in life is to reach out to another person. Sometimes, though, that act is terrifying, and we back away. I also like the book's approach to dealing with the past. Sometimes we are haunted by ghosts that are not our own. Family history has a way of piling the baggage on, and it can be difficult to figure out how to live with the legacies others leave behind. This novel raises so many interesting questions about life, family history, and relationships. On another level, the writing in this story is beautiful and poetic. Gorgeous passages that contain very real and honest emotion. I definitely recommend it.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant novel of an introverted brother, world-class opera singing sister, and their housekeeper from a Central/South American country. The narrative is told linearly from each character's point of view in first person, but there is no overlap in the narrative -- the point of view leap-frog's from one character to another. Rosner uses different type fonts to indicate the different narrators. A haunting book that approaches the horrors of the Holocaust from the perspective of the children whose parents experienced the Nazi death camps directly -- a sort of "children-haunted-by-their-parent's-pain" sort of novel. Concrete, vivid --almost poetic prose. This is one of my favorite books.

[Sandra Oberbroeckling · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Speed of Light connected with me on many levels, despite the fact that my family (past or present) has not been persecuted in the ways described by the characters in the book. Elizabeth presents the characters gradually in such as way that by the end of the novel the varying typefaces are no longer necessary to distinguish their voices. The reader learns, bit by bit, the events that shape their perspectives. Everyday activities such as lunch or a trip to the Laundromat become important clues, along with the characters' interpretations of each other's behavior. As I read, I felt that I was growing with the characters and that they were learning with me.

I can't wait to propose this book to my book club so I can read it again!

[Annette Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book. So much so, that after I read it years ago, I went to an author reading at Elliot Bay Books in Seattle, met the author, and asked her if she’d be willing to fly up from CA (where she lives) and do a book club with my students (I taught high school at the time.). She agreed and helped me get a class set of the book. This book is written for adults, but my students were smitten with it as well. We even planted a ginkgo tree in her honor, during her visit. A day in my teaching career I will never forget.
It’s brilliantly written, very poetic, very character driven. If you are drawn to stories with alternate points of view-this has 3- this may be perfect for you. Stunning writing. And, the author has become a friend.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a remarkable story of how three people, wounded by the memory of political violence, come to help each other begin to find a path out of darkness. Two are a brother and sister weighed down by the silences and pain of their Holocaust surviving parents. The third is a young woman from South America, sole witness and surviver of a military rampage which wiped out and destroyed her small village.

The author weaves the story out of each characters individual voice, in fact the font changes with each narrative. As their stories unfold, they also create a braid of interwoven realities. A very moving and thoughtful exploration of character and memory.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I selected this while browsing our local bookstore because the random fragments I read had a quality to them that made me want to see more. Unfortunately, the book as a whole failed to draw me in. Rather than feeling connected to the characters, there was an absence of emotion for me throughout most of the story. I was disappointed in the back story of Julian, as it seemed to lack any detail as to how he ended up so severely emotionally scarred. The two women in his life seemed more adequately fleshed out, but because Julian's development was pivotal to the story there was always, for me, a gap I could not cross to become fully engaged with the telling.

[Jan K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I normally avoid the subject matter of this book (holocaust/mass murder survivor stories) simply because when I read, the characters become a part of me and I am affected by their stories. The tragic stories need to be told, of course. And, I have read many of them. That said, Rosner's book was a new take on the survivor perspective. She focused on two second generation survivors and one first generation survivor in a unique and captivating way. Her insights into the special ways each character internalized their experience - the stories they did nor did not know - was masterful. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.

[Ellen Marchessault · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book; I absolutely loved it. Narrated in turn by the three main characters, this is a story about love, music, silence, pain and healing. Julian and Paula are brother and sister, he somewhat a somewhat autistic scientist, she an aspiring opera singer. When Paula travels to Europe to further her career, she asks her housekeeper to stay in her apartment and take care of Julian, who lives in the apartment above hers. Sola also has her demons hidden in her past, as do Julian and Paula. I especially liked how the book used separate fonts for each of the narrators. I will definitely read this book more than once.

[Candelaria Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exquisitely written book whose three principle characters, despite having witnessed or been part of incredible trajedies, begin a healing process through their connections - no matter how tenuous. Two of the characters are siblings, each of whom has responded to their father's silence about his experiences during the Holocost in different ways. The other character is Sola - a house cleaner from an unnamed Latin country - who manages to bring light even in her grief.
This book is lovely and uplifting even in its considerable sadness and weight.