Bestselling author Cynthia Freeman’s blockbuster first novel: The tempestuous story of a family whose destiny is shaped by a man who turns his back on his Jewish heritage in order to build a prosperous life in post–World War II America
Katie Kovitz is seventeen when she arrives in New York harbor in the bleak winter of 1932. On the city’s Lower East Side, she meets David Rezinetsky. Cursed with the stigma of poverty, David is on a quest to find love and acceptance.
From the ghettos of New York to the golden hills of San Francisco, Cynthia Freeman tells the story of a family: Katie, who must rely on the kindness of strangers in a strange land, yet never forgets her roots; David, who turns his back on his heritage to find his way in a world that treats him like a pariah; Mark, who embraces everything his father has rejected; and Maggie Kent, who completes David’s transformation, setting in motion a series of events that will affect the lives of this American family for years to come.