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Three Tales from Vienna: A Novel

This epic saga spanning a century and three generations of a Jewish family is Ray Kingfisher’s most original and ambitious novel to date.Three TalesfromViennafollows the fortunes of the Rosenthal family through the eyes of three sisters: the prim but compassionate Alicia, the confident social butterfly that is Giselle, and the studious baby of the family, Klara. But this is more than a tale of three ordinary Jewish sisters; this is also three tales of one great city, of how the changes brought about by union with Hitler’s Germany would prove to have a devastating effect on the character of Vienna as well as the Rosenthal family.Tale One –Calm Waters, Ordinary Lives– is set before the union with Germany, when the three sisters enjoy a typical carefree existence, each searching for love and fulfilment in her own individual manner, each doing her best to ignore the looming cloud of their country’s aggressive neighbor.Covering Vienna’s most tumultuous years, Tale Two –A Bitter North Wind– sees the sisters’ lives torn apart by the brutal National Socialist regime, forcing each of them to deal with persecution in strikingly different ways.In the post-war setting of Tale Three –Salvage and Legacy– each sister must pick up the pieces of a life all but destroyed. Alicia, Giselle, and Klara are torn between honoring their parents and beloved brother, Hugo, or carving out a future where their own offspring are shielded from the effects of the persecution they lived through. But can family ties survive the memories of their ordeals? And do children of survivors inherit some of the pain and suffering their parents endured?Read more

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