Synopsis

1944, Poland. Jacob Stein and Zalman Mendelson meet as boys under terrifying circumstances. They survive by miraculously escaping, but their shared past haunts and shapes their lives forever.

Years later, Zalman plows a future on a Minnesota farm. In Brooklyn, Jacob has a new life with his wife, Esther. When Zalman travels to New York City to reconnect, Jacob’s hopes for the future are becoming a reality. With Zalman’s help, they build a house for Jacob’s family and for Zalman, who decides to stay. Modest and light filled, inviting and warm with acceptance―for all of them, it’s a castle to call home.

Then an unforeseeable tragedy―and the grief, betrayals, and revelations in its wake―threatens to destroy what was once an unbreakable bond, and Esther finds herself at a crossroads. A Castle in Brooklyn is a moving and heartfelt immigration story about finding love and building a home and family while being haunted by a traumatic past.

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Review

A story that spans decades of love and loss. It might just break your own heart.

There are multiple storylines, but it centers around a few main characters – Jacob, Esther, and Zalman. Jacob and Zalman escaped Poland during WWII and remained fast friends for most of their life. There is an incident that tears them apart, but you’ll have to read the book to find out what exactly. They went different ways once they reached America, but they stayed in touch the best they could. Once Jacob married Esther, Zalman moved to New York and remained with them for many years. It was an interesting dynamic to watch how they interacted with each other.

The story is also about a house. The house was built by Jacob for Esther, and Zalman designed it. It was where they lived and created many memories. It was also where they dealt with some harshness that life threw at them. The house knew love, joy, pain, and sadness. There were many memories that were fondly remembered and others that broke hearts. It was interesting when the house was rented in later years how it was appreciated and then not appreciated by the tenants.

This story spans approximately 70 years, and I enjoyed the jumps back and forth in time because it gave me more information to understand Jacob and Zalman’s past in Poland. It added layers to the characters that we couldn’t understand until they told their story. Each of the characters in this story had their own issues to deal with that many of us might experience in our own lives.

I enjoyed this book and give it 4 paws up.

About the Author

Shirley Russak Wachtel is the author of the short story collection Three For A Dollar, the book of poetry, In The Mellow Light, and several books for children. Her short stories and poems have appeared in various literary journals.

A daughter of Holocaust survivors, Wachtel was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a doctor of letters degree from Drew University and, for the past thirty years, has taught English literature at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to two precocious granddaughters, she currently resides in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband, Arthur.

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