How to Make a Life

A Novel

Florence Reiss Kraut

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9781631527807
• Subtopic: Historical Fiction

“An engaging and heartfelt portrayal of intergenerational trauma and hope.”
—Kirkus Reviews

When Ida and her daughter Bessie flee a catastrophic pogrom in Ukraine for America in 1905, they believe their emigration will ensure that their children and grandchildren will be safe from harm. But choices and decisions made by one generation have ripple effects on those who come later—and in the decades that follow, family secrets, betrayals, and mistakes made in the name of love threaten the survival of the family: Bessie and Abe Weissman’s children struggle with the shattering effects of daughter Ruby’s mental illness, of Jenny’s love affair with her brother-in-law, of the disappearance of Ruby’s daughter as she flees her mother’s legacy, and of the accidental deaths of Irene’s husband and granddaughter.

A sweeping saga that follows three generations from the tenements of Brooklyn through WWII, from Woodstock to India, and from Spain to Israel, How to Make a Life is the story of a family who must learn to accept each other’s differences—or risk cutting ties with the very people who anchor their place in the world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Family Tree
• Prologue: Kotovka, Ukraine, 1905
• 1: Ida, 1906–07
• 2: Bessie, 1931
• 3: Abe, 1932–39
• 4: Jenny, 1940–42
• 5: Jenny, 1942–45
• 6: Morris, 1946
• 7: Ruby, 1954
• 8: Jenny, 1954
• 9: Faye, 1959
• 10: Irene, 1964
• 11: Sarah, 1969
• 12: Joseph, 1973
• 13: Morris, 1977
• 14: Sarah, 1984
• 15: Jenny, 1986–88
• 16: Jenny, 1989
• 17: Irene, 1996
• 18: Ellie, 1996
• 19: Morris, 2002
• 20: Abby, 2006
• 21: Faye, 2008
• 22: Jenny, 2012
• Reading Group Discussion Questions
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author