Like a Broken Broken Branch
On a March day in 1917, as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates his throne, Yakov Abramovitch meets Anna Feldman-two events unfolding in a single breath, shaping the course of their lives forever.
Like a Broken Branch is a work of historical fiction that follows their marriage and young family through the upheavals of twentieth-century Russia. In the turbulent decades that follow, their young family endures the betrayed promise of the revolution and the tightening grip of Stalin's rule. Leaving the country is no longer possible. In the early 1920s, as most synagogues are shut down and religious life is driven into the shadows, Yakov begins his own quiet form of resistance. Arrested once and warned to accept the new order and not endanger himself or his family, he still cannot bring himself to surrender entirely. And in secret, despite his promise to Anna, he performs circumcisions forbidden by law, small acts of defiance that keep a fading world alive.
But in 1941, as the Nazi invasion sweeps into Soviet territory and the war against the Jews begins, this far greater horror shatters what remains of their fragile safety. Yakov and Anna are torn apart, and Yakov flees to the forests.
Through years in hiding, fighting with the partisans, and captivity-and through the long decades of loneliness that follow-Yakov dreams of being reunited with his family and of a life no longer ruled by fear and dread. Like a Broken Branch is a novel about love and endurance, about quiet resistance, and about what it means to remain true to oneself in a world determined to erase both faith and family.
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