Customer Reviews

Messenger

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This is a moving and detailed portrait of family and community of Eastern European immigrants to North America in the 1920-30s. Hope, heartbreak, historical details are all woven into a beautiful narrative.

Schwartz has a beautiful, inviting writing style that makes you want to gobble up the story in one reading! My maternal family had a very similar story; Schwartz made it all so real that I could almost smell the buttery mashed potatoes and taste vinegary sauerkraut!

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It's very different from anything I've read before, and I read a lot. There is a dream quality to it - it floats - it's like a ride on a slow river and if you sit back and enjoy the scenery, you'll enjoy the ride. "Messenger" deals with hard times and hard themes like death and poverty, yet somehow the hard edges are removed.

Though it has been a year or so that I've read "Messenger" its characters still linger on within me. It took me back to a place in time that I had never been to before. Took me into the home of a family and a young girl that captured my heart. Although I am an adult I recommend this book to anyone regardless of age. It is a time machine. Once you open it you are taken to that very time and place and soon you are a part of the characters.

Virginia Frances Schwartz is and always will be one of my favorite authors. -Thank you, Gini!

Frances Quintana
Al Anbar Province, Iraq