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The Imposter Bride: A Novel Hardcover – January 29, 2013

by Nancy Richler (Author)

621 ratings

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The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler is an unforgettable novel about a mysterious mail-order bride in the wake of WWII, whose sudden decision ripples through time to deeply impact the daughter she never knew

In the wake of World War II, a young, enigmatic woman named Lily arrives in Montreal on her own, expecting to be married to a man she's never met. But, upon seeing her at the train station, Sol Kramer turns her down. Out of pity, his brother Nathan decides to marry her instead, and pity turns into a deep―and doomed―love. It is immediately clear that Lily is not who she claims to be. Her attempt to live out her life as Lily Azerov shatters when she disappears, leaving a new husband and a baby daughter with only a diary, a large uncut diamond – and a need to find the truth
Who is Lily and what happened to the young woman whose identity she stole? Why has she left and where did she go? It's up to the daughter Lily abandoned to find the answers to these questions, as she searches for the mother she may never find or truly know.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Richler infuses her work with iconic images from the era she covers, painting a rich image of the Canadian Jewish community, their customs and family relationships, in a past century… A beautiful tale.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“A powerful story of identity, loyalty and loss, of the lies that haunt us and the truth that makes us whole again. Evoking the postwar era to underscore timeless theme, Richler's elegant prose resonates.” ―Pam Jenoff, international bestselling author of The Ambassador's Daughter

“Richler is back, and with an elegant, ambitious, accomplished new work.” ―Globe and Mail (Canada)

“The Imposter Bride [is] exquisitely written, filled with interesting and unpredictable characters, and has an intricate plot that doesn't let go. It's good old-fashioned story-telling at its best.” ―Alyson Richman, author of The Lost Wife

“At once heartrending and hopeful… Nancy Richler dissects the mysteries of family bonds and betrayals with stunning emotional precision and magical insights into the human heart's ability to heal.” ―Ellen Feldman, author of Lucy and Next to Love

“A hopeful testament to the power of family and memory, and the importance and meaning of one's name.” ―Winnipeg Free Press (Canada)

“With delicacy and warmth, Richler weaves together the threads of a family: its closeness and secrets, opaqueness and hidden beauty, like the uncut gem whose mystery haunts these realistic characters.” ―Daphne Kalotay, international bestselling author of Russian Winter

“An intriguing tale of historical fiction that will transport you from Montreal to war-torn Europe, and back again for a satisfying resolution of one family's haunting secrets.” ―Shilpi Somaya Gowda, author of Secret Daughter

“Nancy Richler conceives a complex, multi-layered quest for identity that will compel readers to share Ruth's journey to find, understand, and love the mother who abandoned her.” ―Nancy Jensen, author of The Sisters

“Nancy Richler gives us a mother and daughter marked by the Holocaust who, through their heartbreakingly human struggle to live and connect, give us a new understanding of that cataclysmic horror.” ―Mary Pat Kelly, author of Galway Bay

About the Author

NANCY RICHLER's short fiction has been published in various American and Canadian literary journals, including The Fiddlehead, Room of One's Own, and The New Quarterly. Her previous novel, Your Mouth is Lovely, published in eleven countries, won the 2003 Canadian Jewish Book Award for fiction and Italy's 2004 Adei Wizo Award. Nancy is the cousin of the famed Canadian writer and literary critic Mordechai Richler. She lives in Montreal.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 29, 2013
Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250010063
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250010063
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.22 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.44 x 1.23 x 9.59 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,003,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #633 in Jewish Historical Fiction
- #1,312 in Jewish Literature & Fiction
- #51,241 in Women's Literature & Fiction

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Customers find this novel engaging from the first paragraph, with well-crafted characters that are alive and complex. The book provides an enlightening historical backdrop rich in Jewish history, and customers appreciate its writing quality and emotional depth. However, the pacing receives mixed reviews, with several customers finding it slow.

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Story quality Readability Character development Writing quality Historical context Emotional impact Pacing

47 customers mention "Story quality"33 positive14 negative

Customers find the book's story engrossing and hold their interest from the first paragraph, with one customer noting how it tells the tale from alternate perspectives.

"...It is a quiet, easy to read little book, intriguing and worth the effort." Read more

"...The job is masterful and haunting in its success." Read more

"The overall story was excellent...." Read more

"I enjoyed the story very much. It told about a woman who survived the war and her aftermath. Like many survivors, they have been damaged in some way...." Read more

20 customers mention "Readability"20 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enjoyable and worthwhile to read, with one mentioning it was a good Giller Prize shortlist pick.

"...It is a quiet, easy to read little book, intriguing and worth the effort." Read more

"...Lyrically written, it was a great read with compelling characters and an engrossing story." Read more

"...Well worth the read." Read more

"...late in the novel as the focus became uncertain, but all in all a very good read." Read more

14 customers mention "Character development"11 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book, noting that the characters are alive and complex, with one customer highlighting how the dimensional cast reveals the story of love.

"...But the characters are well developed, and some of them haunting, and that makes you push to resolve the tension...." Read more

"...Character development was good but more could have been revealed toward the end about Lily leaving her baby...." Read more

"...The characters were well developed and the author set up a book where you have no idea how it will end...." Read more

"...The main character was far more complex than one would expect in the beginning of the book...." Read more

13 customers mention "Writing quality"10 positive3 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book, with one noting its lyrical style and another appreciating how it is written from a different perspective.

"...It is beautifully written even though it sometimes slows down when the narration focuses on the young daughter growing up and trying to understand..." Read more

"...I won't tell you more! The writing is good so you won't be irritated by the English but it takes a long time to get through it...." Read more

"...Lyrically written, it was a great read with compelling characters and an engrossing story." Read more

"...7. The writing is never more than competent. 8...." Read more

11 customers mention "Historical context"11 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the historical context of the book, noting its rich Jewish history and enlightening historical backdrop, with one customer highlighting its portrayal of generational trauma.

"...It gives a good insight into the Jewish refugees during years from 1945 up until 1970s...." Read more

"...It was filled with love, hope, family relationships, and yet somewhat tragic...." Read more

"...This book is rich in jewish history. It can be a bit confusing in the flash backs to the WWII period...." Read more

"...backdrop was very enlightening as well as the intricate relationships being developed .. What seem at fist kind of banal turned out to be a study in..." Read more

8 customers mention "Emotional impact"6 positive2 negative

Customers appreciate the emotional depth of the book, with one customer noting how the emotions are the core of the story, while another mentions how it explores the feelings of both related and unrelated women.

"...It was filled with love, hope, family relationships, and yet somewhat tragic...." Read more

"...The characters are alive and complex and their emotions are the core of the story...." Read more

"I read with deep feeling this newest novel by Richler, and learned a lot too, just as i did with my introduction to her in "You Have a Beautiful..." Read more

"A very poignant novel embracing the lives and feelings of related and unrelated women...." Read more

9 customers mention "Pacing"0 positive9 negative

Customers find the pacing of the book slow, with one mentioning it takes a long time to get through and another noting it leaves many unanswered questions.

"...It is beautifully written even though it sometimes slows down when the narration focuses on the young daughter growing up and trying to understand..." Read more

"...I found some parts very slow and others would jump through time periods. Have to admit I began to skip a few pages at a time." Read more

"...novel started out very promisingly, great potential, but left so many unanswered questions and confusing maybes!..." Read more

"I chose this rating because the book was a little bit slow for the first 100 pages or so...." Read more

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Patricia
A mysterious woman haunts this novel
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2013
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As World War II was ending, Europe was full of refugees all trying to get somewhere, and everyone was looking for their missing family members. If you found a dead person with a good ID, you could take it and become that person and hope it would get you out of there - particularly to the Americas or Palestine. The mysterious woman who takes another’s ID and ends up in Canada is at the heart of the novel, though she disappears early leaving her new family wondering what happened to her, in particular her newborn daughter who longs to know her. It is beautifully written even though it sometimes slows down when the narration focuses on the young daughter growing up and trying to understand her family. But the characters are well developed, and some of them haunting, and that makes you push to resolve the tension. It gives a good insight into the Jewish refugees during years from 1945 up until 1970s. I think I read it in a day and a half because I wanted to know what happened. It is a quiet, easy to read little book, intriguing and worth the effort.

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2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer
"Our need to know where we come from.."
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2013
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Ironically, Lily may be the only one in this book who does know exactly from where she came. But that place is a world of death so entire and so evil as to wipe her clean of her present. Lily is not her name. Lily is the name of a dead girl whose identity she took in the closing days of Nazi Germany as the Russians advance. So feral is this act, she can barely understand her own actions.

In the new world of Canada, her husband's family and friends are beset by the mysteries of death, flight, and silence. Will the children come to understand? "No one needs a peaceful heart, her mother answered. It's enough to have one that beats." In this closely shorn Jewish world, the Holocaust is another person never named. It looms at every breath in those who were intended to. Be exterminated. The woman from whom Lily had taken her name had come to be "vermin, dirt, and nothing" where once she had been a girl.

The daily struggle to remain in this "safe world" informs the actions of each character. In the loss of a world, how does one fit the loss of a parent? Can one build on shifting sands of terror or grief? This book takes these questions head on without ever resorting to the lurid nightmares of the age. The job is masterful and haunting in its success.

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9 people found this helpful

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Sylvia Martin
A Good Read but Confusing at times.
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2017
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The overall story was excellent. I did, however, think the first fifty pages or so really told us everything and it may have been better to have spread some of the details over the life of the book. I was looking for a surprise or revelation which never really happened. Character development was good but more could have been revealed toward the end about Lily leaving her baby. Confusion occurred with the change of voice in alternating chapters. It was difficult to discern who was speaking and in which time period. Still, it was a good effort and invoked much discussion at the Book Club to which I belong.

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2 people found this helpful

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Camila
Almost a fairy tale...
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2013
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If the reunion with Ruth and her mom was good, and they had seen each oter more, than it was a fairy tale..
But seeing the way how she was left behind, she did not feel nothing for her mom.. Still she went looking for her..
Even though the story was sad, I loved how the way it was told..and all the characters had a role in shaping Ruth's life

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gemini
A very good read
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2013
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I enjoyed the story very much. It told about a woman who survived the war and her aftermath. Like many survivors, they have been damaged in some way. The book was a different view of one such woman and how her efforts to belong and become part of a Jewish family just after World War II in Montreal. The characters were well developed and the author set up a book where you have no idea how it will end. It was filled with love, hope, family relationships, and yet somewhat tragic.I enjoyed it so much I then read her other book called Your Lips Are Lovely. The latter is not available on the Kindle.

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Kaslo
It's ok but not something I would run out and buy.
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2013
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This is a story told by the child of a woman, her mother, with a secret past who comes to the States and marries a man who she likes but doesn't love. She mysteriously disappears one day and the only contact is that each year on her daughters birthday she send a wonderful stone that she has found somewhere. I won't tell you more!

The writing is good so you won't be irritated by the English but it takes a long time to get through it. I found some parts very slow and others would jump through time periods. Have to admit I began to skip a few pages at a time.

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Jill F.
Left me hanging
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2015
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this novel started out very promisingly, great potential, but left so many unanswered questions and confusing maybes! I would have likes to have the main plot line of the book addressed more...
So disappointing!

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christampery
Much more than the title suggests
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2021
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"The Imposter Bride" almost conveys a hint of a madcap movie with Julia Roberts, but it is far from that. I certainly didn't expect scenes from the Holocaust but that really anchored the story. Lyrically written, it was a great read with compelling characters and an engrossing story.

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Janet B
A FIVE STAR WINNER!
Reviewed in Canada on January 7, 2013
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It is after the Second World War in Poland when a damaged young woman assumes the identity of a dead girl she sees lying on the street. The name of the dead girl is Lily Azerov. The woman finds an identity card, a notebook filled with dreams and other scribblings written in Yiddish, a pair of woolen socks and a single frosted stone, which she knew to be a diamond. She puts the socks on over her own worn socks and everything else inside the waistband of her trousers. Nothing went unused in Poland. She didn't know Lily in life. This would be her chance of getting out of Poland to escape the horrors of the war and she was going to take this opportunity. She had lost her family and had no one but herself. She then assumes the identity of Lily.
She is determined to survive and she knew she should now flee. She stopped and closed the dead girl's eyes. This she did for the girl whose future she was stealing.

She remembers the name she read in the notebook, Sonya Nemetz and her address in Tel Aviv. Lily goes to Sonya. Sonya hadn't seen her Cousin Lily in a long time, but she knew this was not her Cousin Lily. Sonya wrote her sister, Ida Pearl in Montreal and told her the story. Someone landed on her doorstep and claims to be their Cousin Lily. Only Sonya can't remember Lily looking like that. Sonya feels sorry for her and invites her in her home and confronts the lie, but she doesn't flinch. She sends Lily to Mrs. Zlotnik who can arrange anything she needs eg papers, marriages, jobs and whatever is needed. Lily leaves the diamond with Mrs. Zlotnik to pay for her services. Mrs. Zlotnik was afraid that it was stolen, but she told Lily to leave it for a few days. It took a few months for a marriage to be arranged and it was. Lily was going to Montreal to wed the lucky bridegroom named Sol Kramer.

When Lily gets off the train in Montreal, Sol Kramer and his brother Nathan are waiting for her at the station. Sol gets cold feet and decides she is damaged goods and he rejects her. Nathan steps in and feels sorry that she travelled so far only to be left stranded. However, Nathan can't let this happen. He wants to marry her. He likes her and in a short time he grows to love her. Nathan and Lily marry and go on to have a baby girl they named Ruthie.

Nathan's brother Sol is sorry he let Lily go, but at this point he can't do anything about it. He then goes on to marry a young girl named Elka. Elka's mother is a Cousin to the "real" Lily. Lily isn't too happy about the situation, because now the "real" Lily's Canadian relatives are too close to the Imposter Lily. One day, Lily tells everyone she is going out to buy milk for the baby, only never to return. Before she left, she had prepared milk for baby Ruthie. She left Ruthie the notebook and the rock. Nathan and the family were shocked. Beginning with Nathan's mother, Bella, Sol's new wife Elka and the other women in the family, they all take over and look after Ruthie, giving her lots of love. Nathan, too, makes sure Ruthie has everything she needs.

As Ruthie grows older, she wonders why her mother left. Rocks arrive consistently in the mail, an ongoing communication over the years of Ruthie's childhood. Leaving rocks is a Ritual of Mourning in the Jewish faith. Ruthie is curious as to why her mother left her and her father. She asks Nathan, her father. Even Nathan has no answer.

Did Lily leave because she was coming close to being found out? Was her conscience bothering her? Was she in love with Sol? After going through the horrors of the war and losing her family, was she depressed? Did she kill the "real" Lily? Did Ruthie finally find her mother?

Nancy Richler has written an unforgettable book. The writing is clear and smooth. The characters are true-to-life. Ms. Richler has given us a wonderful look at Jewish Society in Post-War Montreal.

I enjoyed The Imposter Bride and can highly recommend it. It merits 5 out of 5 Stars.

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Penny
Could have been better
Reviewed in Canada on March 21, 2013
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I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I grew up in Montreal and it was very nostalgic for me to read. I enjoyed all the characters and basically the plot. Having said that, I did find it a little disjointed and not quite believable in parts (a mother sending rocks to her daughter?). I would have enjoyed a better ending to tie up all the loose questions that were floating around as I was reading the book. Would have liked a more plausible reason why the mother left, The mother's character lacked so much emotion and feeling she was almost a void in the book and not a central character.

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caseygirl
Mixed feelings on this one
Reviewed in Canada on October 21, 2014
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Don't know quite how to evaluate this book. The premise is excellent and I thought it would knock my socks off. It didn't. The beginning was good and so was the ending but I had to really apply myself to get through the middle or should I say most of the book. It is well written and the characters are good but I kept wanting to know more about the mother, where she went, something about her life. I wanted her to somehow contact her daughter with something more than stones. It seems a bit unnatural for a mother to do that but then at that period in history people were not as open and as accepting as they are now. I'm glad I read it but I won't be reading it again.

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Cherie Miller
Engaging, multi-layered story
Reviewed in Canada on January 24, 2013
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The Imposter Bride held my interest throughout the story. I enjoyed the child's perspective and her range of emotional development throughout her life.The description of the Jewish community in Montreal in the 50s was very real. It felt similar to Toronto at the same time and I don't often see this history reflected in the literature I read. The friendships between the women, different pieces of knowledge and stages of revieling the truth were very well done. I wanted more character development for the mother. I wanted some more understanding of her motivation to leave the family. Overall, it was a great read!

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Coppens Academy Childcare
A sweet and sorrowful story with a bit of a meandering end
Reviewed in Canada on September 14, 2022
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This book is well-written and wise, touching on some of the less explored consequences of war. The back half of the story drags on a bit but it's still very much worth the read.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A FIVE STAR WINNER!

4.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings on this one

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, multi-layered story

4.0 out of 5 stars A sweet and sorrowful story with a bit of a meandering end

A FIVE STAR WINNER!

Could have been better

Mixed feelings on this one

Engaging, multi-layered story

A sweet and sorrowful story with a bit of a meandering end