I’m going to be super lame, and open this review with a quote from another author. To quote Neil Gaiman, “The real problem with stories – if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.”

This is what is termed a “mosaic novel,” a series of vignettes that form a complete story when taken all together. It starts shortly before World War I, with two little Jewish girls: Chana from the Russian Empire, Sophia from the German Empire. Despite living hundreds of miles apart, they manage - somehow, no explanation is ever even hinted at - to wander into the same forest clearing. They very quickly become best friends, in the way that only small children can, and vow to try to find their way back to the clearing every year.

Sophia and Chana never meet again. But their families do, again and again over the generations, never realizing the history they share. And that’s where we get our vignettes: snapshots of the lives of the descendants of Sophia and Chana, frequently featuring appearances (sometimes cameos, sometimes substantial ones) where their descendants touch each other's lives. These vignettes are shaped by events like two world wars, the labor movement, the Holocaust, the AIDS epidemic, and (when the stories start reaching into the future) climate change and environmental collapse.

These stories tend to vary between bittersweet and intensely sad. End of life (whether from the perspective of the person dying, or their loved ones left behind) is a frequent theme - hence the Gaiman quote above. The traditional Jewish blessing said when someone dies - zikhrono livrakha, “may their memory be a blessing” - is a common theme.

Another deep theme in this is the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, “repairing the world.” Tikkun olam has many connotations, the most common of which today is a call to actions of social justice. But it has a more mystical connotation as well: the notion that the divine light of God was shattered during Creation, and it’s up to people to bring these separated sparks of goodness together to restore the world to Paradise. A different spin on the same idea: there are only so many souls in creation, and loving connections are two parts of the same soul finding each other. This is both subtext woven throughout and something explicitly discussed, as well as referenced in the title (when some descendants of both Sophia and Chana are talking about tikkun olam at a Passover seder, and one of them jokes, “what, is everyone at this table Soul Number 2065 or something?”).

An excellent, and powerful, journey. Have tissues, a fuzzy blanket, a cup of cocoa, and a puppy on standby. There’ll be some ugly crying.

This is such a weird book I’ve ever read for some reason.

I was disappointed as I much expecting so much more given the title.

A charming fantasy story, The History of Soul 2065 kept me entertained until the very end. This is the first book I have read by its author and I look forward to reading more in the future.

Synopsis:
Months before World War I breaks out, two young Jewish girls just on the edge of adolescence—one from a bustling Russian city, the other from a German estate—meet in an eerie, magical forest glade. They are immediately drawn to one another and swear an oath to meet again. Though war and an ocean will separate the two for the rest of their lives, the promise that they made to each other continues through the intertwined lives of their descendants.

This epic tale of the supernatural follows their families from the turn of the 20th Century through the terrors of the Holocaust and ultimately to the wonders of a future they never could have imagined. THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 encompasses accounts of sorcery, ghosts, time travel, virtual reality, alien contact, and elemental confrontations between good and evil. Understated and epic, cathartic and bittersweet, the twenty connected stories in Nebula Award finalist Barbara Krasnoff’s debut form a mosaic narrative even greater than its finely crafted parts.

This book is a series of linked short stories that form a gorgeous tapestry of the interwoven lives of two families. They range from competent to so heart-rendingly brilliant, they left me tearful and astonished. My hands-down favorite (also the favorite of Jane Yolen, who wrote the Introduction) was “Sabbath Wine.” That story alone was worth the price of the entire book. Beautiful, strange, ordinary, transformative. This collection marks Krasnoff as a writer to watch for.

What Worked
Mixing genres can go horribly wrong. That these intertwined stories included “accounts of sorcery, ghosts, time travel, virtual reality, (and) alien contact” attracted my attention, but I figured that these stories would be very loosely connected. I figured this would just be, well, a short story anthology; maybe with some wrap-around element at the beginning and end. Otherwise, how could Krasnoff possible glue all those genres together? Pleasingly, the tales were more interconnected than I expected, jumping form family member to family member and generation to generation. And jumping from genre and genre. It works because the characters are always in the forefront; the genre elements never overshadow.

The long-term story of Chana and Sophie, the two girls whom we meet in the opening story, is told in the reflection of their families. Each story is told from a different family member’s as focus: spouses, children, grandchildren, in-laws, and occasionally friends that are like family. The structure is very well done. The concluding story is “The History of Soul 2065.” The number is a joking reference to a chapter number, like Laborers Local 151. The concept is that there are only a certain number of souls in existence and each has been shattered apart. Certain people end up with parts of the same soul. The interconnectedness of this idea is the theme of the entire work.

What Didn’t Work
Krasnoff writes with a very light touch, but sometimes settings feel very generic. Places and times all flow together. Maybe that’s on purpose, but without notes at the beginning of the chapter, I wouldn’t necessarily know if a story was set in the past or the future. I feel like a few telling details would have grounded the stories better.

Overall
The History of Soul 2065 was very enjoyable, though often times sad. No family escapes heartache, but also no family is without hope.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mythic Delirium Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

This year, I’ve really been about reading books in new formats, and this is one that snatched my attention: a series of interconnected short stories that builds on a single premise. I tend to read extremely linear books, so the fact that this didn’t actually have an overarching plot was something that I thought would be novel, even though I wasn’t sure how I would like it. The verdict: I loved it.

The first important fact: the 2065 in the title is not a year. Reading comprehension skills are important, kids. Since I don’t possess these, I went in thinking it was “The History of Soul … 2065.” False. It’s all one thing. It’s “The History of Soul 2065.” That’s a very big distinction. And I’m glad, because what I thought was sort of lame, and the way the author took it was much more enjoyable and rewarding to read.

The History of Soul 2065 has a little bit of everything, from ghosts to witches to the afterlife to grief, and everything in between. There’s a pervasive eerie supernatural atmosphere in a lot of stories that was easy to get caught up in, and it always kept me guessing.

As with all short story collections, there were some I liked more than others. There were only a couple that I just didn’t care for at all, and with a collection this large, that’s pretty impressive, in my opinion.

My Thoughts:

- The family trees so kindly provided in the front of the book are not recommendations. Read them. They’re sort of required. Don’t be like me. I’m the awful sort of person who skips superfluous content in the beginning of the book to get right to the story. I ended up having to go back to read the family trees in the front of the book, and when I did, everything fell into place. Imagine that, yeah? The whole premise of the book is that these two little girls meet in a magical clearing, and while they promise to meet again, life has other plans in store for them, the way it does. But their promise is fulfilled, little by little, through the actions of their family, and it goes down the line until the two families eventually meet again, several generations later. So it’s important to know these two trees if you’re really going to understand all the wonderful Easter eggs Krasnoff drops from one story to the next.

- I’m the super nerdy sort of reader who loves looking for Easter eggs in stories, and man did this book ever deliver on that. I mean, it’s really a series of short stories, so I guess they had to be connected somehow, right? Sometimes it can feel random, jumping from one story to the next, but there’s always little details that ground it in previous stories. Even though the story might be about one character, others are name dropped or brought in as secondary characters, and while we may not get to learn a whole lot about a character all at once, it builds up to a very clear picture of a host of endearing characters and how they effect each other’s lives.

- There is a little of everything in these stories—I laughed and cried and pondered life and death and fell in love with the characters over and over again. There were just so dang many moments where the hairs on my arm raised because the writing hit just the right chord, whether it was a supernatural moment that caught me off-guard with its eeriness or just a situation that was so poignant and relatable that it gave me chills. Emotions are hard work, yo, and this had me all over the board. It wasn’t all negative and heartache, but I felt like even the lighter moments hit me just right and really endeared me to the characters. The situations they go through are things many of us have experienced, with just a bit of supernatural sprinkled on top.

- The writing is just beautiful. It walks the line between eerie, thoughtful, emotional, and just easy reading. Once I started a story, I wanted to finish it (with few exceptions). The way they unfold, it always felt like there was a little twist or something to be discovered along the way, which made even the more mundane stories exciting, because I knew there’d be a payoff in the end and there almost always was. The thing I was probably most impressed about with the writing was just how creative it was, with so many large concepts tackled succinctly and subtly, while still with an appropriate depth to do them justice.

- There is no one overarching plot that carries this book, so if that’s what you’re in it for, choose something else. This is very much a character-driven story. Each short story can stand on its own, but when they’re taken in tandem with all the others, it really brings a new life to each piece. The backdrop of all the other stories in the collection makes each new story mean just that little more, precisely because of all the Easter eggs and little ways that the stories are connected.

Sticking Points:

- As I said, there were some short stories that were complete misses for me (which is to be expected from a collection). I felt like they went a bit too far from believability, considering the magical realism setting in the rest of the stories. I loved the magical realism and the fantasy elements that were slightly outside of ordinary life: the women who made things happen almost magically, the haunting of spirits, the afterlife, magical items, etc. These elements were obviously fantasy, but the way they were broached was like a hint at the unknown, rather than so in-your-face about it. The tone was a little bit different, though, with a story where someone uses magic to body swap, or one that involved aliens, or similar stories. This really comes down to personal preference, but I prefer the subtle supernatural elements, the things that make you consider if something like that could really happen, rather than the more out there fantasy elements.

- The friendship of the two girls in the beginning, Chana and Sophia, is overstated. They only meet once and promise to return and meet again, but that’s about it. Yet, during the story, the big focus is on the “friendship” of these girls, which feels like a bit of a stretch. There may have been an immediate connection, a sort of kinship, but I don’t think meeting someone for an hour or less constitutes as a friendship. Since this is the big founding premise of the stories, it was a bit disappointing. I would’ve liked to see them meet more than once in their secret glade and actually have a running friendship going before they find they can no longer return due to life.

It beautifully written and very imaginative novel for fans of magical realism and almost fairytale stories. I found this book really inventive and I'd like to recommend it for everyone who'd like to be enchatnted for a while.

The History of Soul 2065

by Barbara Krasnoff

Mythic Delirium Books

Literary Fiction , Sci Fi & Fantasy

One of the coolest aspects of this book are where the stories first appeared, some of which are professional (but not the major venues), others semi-professional and yet one of them was in the running for a Nebula:

Space and Time, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Weird Tales, Mythic Delirium, Apex Magazine, Electric Velocipede, Clockwork Phoenix

Yet here they are: stories collected between two book covers--a place that commands respect.



One key of the collection is the simplicity of the tales, which is probably good considering their non-traditional structure. They aren't really character stories where someone learns something (although maybe) or where someone should have learned something but didn't or plot stories where a character solves a problem. If any, it's the lattermost, but it pulls deus ex machinas, or solves someone else's problems. You'd think the stories would trip and land flat on their faces. But they don't. Strangely they can be satisfying like sipping hot mocha on a hot day.



Let's take, for an example, the Nebula finalist that Jane Yolen reprinted, "Sabbath Wine." It's the story Malka Hirsch's Dad's struggle to get wine for her bat mitzvah (even though it's for boys, even though the dad is secular, even though something which is the great secret at the end). It's all a MacGuffin, and we don't even start in our protagonist's POV or get his name until the third scene. The story itself is something of a mosaic. The opening scene is something of prologue although it's useful to the story. And I can't tell more without ruining it.



In fact most of these stories don't develop in a normal fashion making them difficult to summarize. Most people are probably scratching their heads why the story made it as far it did.



"The Cancer God" is a pretty good not-exactly-deal-with-the-devil story where Abe is dying of cancer and doesn't want to be. "The Ladder-Back Chair," the second of two stories that Yolen especially liked, is sure to resonate with those who have lost someone near and dear. Joan lost her spouse, Morris, who had been dying by degrees. Interestingly, both of the stories Yolen liked have surprise endings that hinge upon them.



Other stories of note include "The Sad Old Lady"--a tale of young girl who is terrified when she sees herself as she will be when she gets old. "In the Gingerbread House" relates how a cheap pasteboard jewel becomes an instrument to tell stories and save lives. "Time and the Parakeet" is a fantasy time-travel tale where random chance allows someone to make a simple choice that improves one's life for the better. A boy has "An Awfully Big Adventure" when visited by a witch figure--however he's been given numbers that will help. "Rosemary Is for Remembrance" is actually a rare story which does the opposite of the other: It takes something that seems sweet (a trip to the beauty parlor) and renders it horrifying. In "Stoop Ladies" a woman seems to be at the end of her rope until she visits the ladies who gossip on their stoop. "Escape Route" almost worked for me--lovely setup but Krasnoff didn't carry out the ending with her usual magic.



Those are the major stories (about half) that stood out for me. Do they hang together? There's a little bit of a frame story. Two young women meet in the woods and vow to meet again. Chance prevents their reuniting although their descendants do at the end.



The book's description makes a claim of being a mosaic novel, which is said to be a novel of stories that share the same setting or characters. I'm leaning on the term "novel" to build toward some plot, character, or thematic resonance--perhaps all three. One might claim many Dickenson novels as mosaic novels since they are stories that eventually tie together as some of the threads come to have great importance by the novel's end.



I'll throw in a few other terms as well. There's the "fix-up," which is a group of stories that usually follow characters through time but don't often build toward something greater than the individual stories themselves--pleasing as the individual stories may be. This includes a number of Van Vogt fix-up "novels" and some of the Moorcock fix-up novels like Elric. Any episodic adventure like Swift's Gulliver's Travels would fit. Then there are thematic or motif collections like Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles since, although some seem to build toward something, that eventually fades.



Stross's Accelerando is an interesting case. If you consider the developing artificial intelligence as a character, then it's a mosaic novel. If not, then it's part thematic collection, part fix-up.



Where does Krasnoff's The History of Soul 2065 fit along this continuum? If you can tell by the summaries, it's probably closer to thematic/motif collection. Like Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, plot or character threads do connect the stories, but not across the board. Even the stories, that directly connect via characters appearing in one to die in another, don't rely heavily on what was built up in a previous story. They do hang together in the sense of characters who want to peer beyond the grave or peer into the past, often focusing on the Holocaust. This probably coheres the narratives more strongly than anything else.



What one calls this book may be less important than knowing the overall effect, and for the most part, most Krasnoff stories leave the reader with a little hope and a sweet tenderness, no matter how dismal one's circumstances may be. And that may be all you need to know.

I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but the cover of The History of Soul 2065 was beyond my capacity to ignore. Once I eyed this baby on #netgalley, I had to request it. Then, when it appeared (amazingly), on my shelf, it jumped to the front of my stack of to be read books. Needless to say, I was immediately drawn into Barbara Krasnoff's historical fiction/ fantasy world, and I could not put the book down. Chanah Rivka Krasulka, 11 years old from Lviv Ukrania, meets Sophia Rokhl Stein, who lives a large estate in Germany, in a beautiful clearing, just beyond an enchanted forest, and they immediately connect, despite the fact they come from completely different backgrounds. They promise each other no matter what happens, they will someday meet again. The book is divided into two sections, Chanah's family and Sophia's family, and the sections are divided into "short stories" about Chanah's and Sophia's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. It is incredible to witness how the branches of these two families become intertwined, or, said differently, how each character becomes a part of a complete "mosaic". The book is a journey backwards and forward through time, a truly original creation! EXCELLENT READ! HIGHLY RECCOMMEND! Pub date June 11, 2019. Thank you #netgalley for the e-ARC #thehistoryofsoul2065 in return for my honest review.

It started off interesting, but began to take so many twists and turns, changing narrators repeatedly, that I gave it up. It's a rare occasion when I cut my losses and stop reading a book midway through, but this was one of those times. I'm giving it two stars because the premise looked really interesting, and the first chapter was good. It would probably be perfect for the right person...who just wasn't me.