Help promote this title

Other titles by this author

• IRRETRIEVABLY BROKEN

Description

Irretrievably Broken is the haunting, funny, and heart-breaking account of German ex-patriots Nora, Ruth, and Bettina Adler. The plot takes us from Seattle to Washington, D.C., to northern Saskatchewan and to Southern Germany, as one multi-cultural family deals with diversity and racism. Horticulturist-turned programmer Nora Adler is obsessed with Max, whom she’s about to divorce, and consumed with guilt over Luther. The two men, like two sides of one coin, dominate her daytime and nighttime dreams. Nora’s mother, caustic and wry Ruth Adler whose blunt statements are often inappropriate, is the thorn in Nora’s side that will not let her descend into grief. With the arrival of Nora‘s niece from Germany, stunning 12-year-old Bettina, the product of a black African-American mother and a white German father, the action heats up. Relations become strained as Nora tries to adjust to surrogate motherhood and Ruth, who originally opposed Bettina’s move to Seattle, quickly switches allegiance. When summer vacation arrives the three Adlers, accompanied by Bettina’s African-American godmother, Mary, take a cross-country trip to Washington, D.C. During this journey Bettina becomes the catalyst for the adults to talk about their lives, each revealing secrets from their past. After a lifetime of silence Ruth talks of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, when as a girl not much older than her granddaughter she turned against her parents to save her Jewish friend, Frieda, from the Nazis. Nora, who became estranged from her family when she married a native Cree, recalls in lyrical descriptions her solo wilderness trek to the bush country of northern Saskatchewan, where her senses were opened by nature and where she met and married Max. In the end it is Mary’s startling confession and Frieda’s discovery in the ruins of her family home that heal old wounds. When Nora learns “the third truth of life” she is able to turn from the hurts of the past to the promises of the future. Irretrievably Broken is populated with unforgettable characters in a candid exploration of ethnicity and race. It is a novel of love and loss, of guilt and forgiveness, of family and friendship.

Reader Comments