A Mother's Secret

by Carolyn Haddad

Book Overview

To flee German-occupied Poland and save her child, Jewish partisan Eliza Wolf puts her daughter in the care of a local peasant--and finds her again after forty years of searching. A sensitive novel,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151626669
• ISBN13: 9780151626663
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 501 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

TWO MOTHERS...ONE DAUGHTER...

This is simply a terrific story about two women and a child with whom each has a special bond. One is the mother who bore her. The other is the mother who raised her. Set against the backdrop of World War II, the story begins in Poland where Eliza Wolf, a young Polish Jew, is living a hardscrabble life as a member of the resistance. Eliza soon comes to the realization that fighting and motherhood do not go hand and hand, so rather than risk the life of her year old daughter, Mina, she comes to a decision that will haunt her all of her life. She entrusts her daughter to the only person she knows in the rural Polish village of Kowitz, a gentile named Wanda Zbyszek, who happens to be a laundress and the town whore. Eliza vows she will return to reclaim Mina after the war. The fates intervene, and Eliza arrives too late to claim Mina, as Wanda has wrongly assumed Eliza to be a victim of the holocaust. Consequently, Wanda and MIna have left the chaos of post-war Poland, finding a means of getting to America. There, Wanda changes her name and re-invents herself, becoming the woman she always felt herself to be. It is in America that Wanda, now known as Maria, raises Mina, who remains ignorant of her past. Meanwhile, after fruitlessly searching for her daughter to no avail, Eliza eventually emigrates to Israel, where she, too, creates a life for herself, but always in her heart there is a great sadness for the daughter whose fate is unknown to her. Although she marries and has two other children, she grieves still for the daughter she knew only briefly. Once again, however, the fates intervene. Mina will go on a journey that is born out of sorrow but will end in great joy, as the veil to her past is lifted in a way that she could never have imagined. This is simply a well-written, superlative novel that tells a spellbinding story that will hold the reader in its thrall. Bravo!

Great story, but not a literary gem

This is a great story, I highly recommend "A Mother's Secret." I read this book when I was in my late 20s and it meant so much to me. W W II was before my time, but I remember most other events related in the book. Haddad's strength is in character development and bringing to life Israel and Jewish life. I cared about Mina, Wanda and Eliza and for days I was lost in this story.I read it again in my early 40s. While it is a great story, it feels like Haddad spent a lifetime writing for teenagers and made her first steps into adult fiction with "A Mother's Secret," which is unsuitable for teenagers because of content and a sprinkling of the F*** word. Many heavy subjects, such as Mina's conversion, which could have been a short story by itself, was written in a light, breezy tone and passed on.Mina's first meeting with her mother was unconvincing. I did not believe Eliza would not recognize her, especially if she looked "just like Paula Feurstein." Same first name, Polish, Jewish, looks like her aunt...Eliza would have had to have been an imbecile not to catch on (I wonder if Haddad is a mother herself).Take "A Mother's Secret" for the great story that it is and don't expect a literary style that rivals Hemingway or Steinbeck. Read it and enjoy a few days of good pulp fiction.

up all night

This was one of the best books I've ever read. Someone recommended it to me over 10 years ago and it's been sitting on my book shelf. I picked it up last week and couldn't put it down. I would love to find other books by this author. She writes beautifully.