Waiting for a Miracle...

Waiting for a Miracle (2018) - Helen (Wininger) Livnat


We didn’t know who was fighting who or why

we only knew
biting winds
snow
burnt homes
cramped trains
filthy
torn clothes

the smell of death

and a hunger
that stifled all sense of morality

but in our hands
we had a miracle
(or two)

waiting

an old Bible, the entire Torah on one scroll

and
I was about to make sounds
that would make a bird proud

I had
a violin

MY GOODREADS REVIEW
Waiting for a Miracle: Historical Novel by Helen (Wininger) Livnat
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Within the first few pages of Waiting for a Miracle we learn that All Jewish boys older than ten years of age, are to be taken from their families to be disappeared somewhere in the Russian prairies. And so the many shadows around being a Jew in Romania, threatened first by Russians, Germans and then Russians, from the eras of World War I to II, begin. Through several generations of one family, we feel what it is like to live in a borrowed country on borrowed time. But finally, one hope consistently emerges in an unexpected form...a violin, Feivel's violin. Feivel's playing opens what appear to be impossible doors. By the close of the novel, I felt a sense of incredible shock and admiration for the strength of these people. Somehow, the current 2020 suffering of covid-19 lockdowns tends to pale into frustrating discomfort by comparison. Even the epilogue stirs the spirit. The author returns to key places in the novel and tells of what she finds and how she feels there. A very moving, unforgettable novel.


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