Learning to Survive

Michal is a dutiful Jewish girl living in a small village in Russia. She marries the man her father arranges for her and thinks she will have a happy life in the village. That is before the Cossacks come and murder her husband when they attack the village.

The Jewish boy Taavi, that has been flirting with her while she was married, saves her she feels like she has no other choice but to marry him and travel to Berlin where he can get a job. With no family left she feels completely alone.

In the years that follow Michal leaves Taavi because she cannot be with him as a wife because of the damage the Cossack caused to her. She than has to learn to survive on her own in the large city of Berlin.

As they go their separate ways Michal becomes a strong woman surviving on her own in Berlin. She never forgets Taavi and wishes things could be different and that they could be together. Taavi never forgets Michal and doesn’t understand why she left. Will they find their way back to each other?

Just as life gets a little easier and looks better for Michal, Adolf Hitler rises and things start getting really bad for the Jewish people in Berlin. Can she survive the Nazi’s.

A great first book to a brand-new series. I can’t wait for the next book.

Another absolutely amazing and heart-rending story by Roberta Kagan! I love the descriptions of what life was like in the Weimar Republic, and I’m so glad Michal and Taavi found each other, I can’t wait for the next part!