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Lillian’s journey

October 20th, 2007 Lesley - Central

Lillian Leyb, the 22-year-old Jewish immigrant in Amy Bloom’s latest novel Away, arrives in New York in 1924 after a Russian pogrom killed her husband and parents.  Lillian’s three-year-old daughter Sophie had also become separated from the rest of the family and is presumed dead.

Once in New York, Lillian quickly finds employment as a seamstress for the Goldfadn Yiddish Theatre and becomes the mistress of both the lead actor Meyer Burstein and his wealthy father Reuben. 

The arrival of cousin Raisele in America changes Lillian’s life forever when she announces that she has seen Sophie who is still alive and escaped with a neighboring family to Siberia. 

Lillian’s friend the taylor/actor and playwright Yaakov Shimmelman arranges her journey to find Sophie through an unusual route.  Because a trip over the Atlantic Ocean and the European continent would be too expensive, he decides to plan her journey the other way around the world- through Chicago by train to Seattle, across the Alaskan wilderness and then by boat to Russia! 

Inspired by the legend of Lillian Alling, a Russian immigrant who attempted to walk home to Siberia in the 1920s, the author, a finalist for the National Book Award, has created an  unusual immigrant novel full of interesting characters and exotic places.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction