Safe Harbors

Stephanie Zvirin

In this autobiographical novel, a sequel to "Touch Wood" (1988), which was about her experiences as a Jewish child hidden in a convent, Roth-Hano writes about her postwar coming of age in New York City, where she traveled at the invitation of Adele Miller, who needed a governess for her 10-year-old daughter. Roth-Hano's ruminative, unaffected telling combines memories of what she encountered in her new home with flashes of the past--about Fernand, her boyfriend; her postwar life in Paris; her strained relationship with her mother; and her beloved father, whose death she still feels partly responsible for. Her story is intriguing on several counts. A keen observer of human nature, she gives readers a vivid, concrete sense of the people she meets. And her candor about matters of religion is refreshing: she is openly awed by religious freedom in the U.S. and is straightforward about her loss of faith and disillusionment with traditional Judaism, her attachment to the Catholic Church, and her eventual discovery of a "safe harbor" in a Reform Jewish temple. Readers will applaud her when she accepts responsibility for herself and breaks away from the Millers, from her guilt, and from her mother's domination. An unusual fictionalized memoir that draws its drama from the strong voice of its narrator.