Stitching a Life

An Immigration Story

Stitching a Life
Mary Helen Fein
RRP:
NZ$ 36.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 31.44
Paperback
h216 x 140mm - 256pg
25 Jun 2020 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9781631526770
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
It's 1900, and sixteen-year-old Helen comes alone in steerage across the Atlantic from a small village in Lithuania, fleeing terrible anti-Semitism and persecution. She arrives at Ellis Island, and finds a place to live in the colorful Lower East Side of New York. She quickly finds a job in the thriving garment industry and, like millions of others who are coming to America during this time, devotes herself to bringing the rest of her family to join her in the New World, refusing to rest until her family is safe in New York. A few at a time, Helen's family members arrive. Each goes to work with the same fervor she has and contributes everything to bringing over their remaining beloved family members in a chain of migration. Helen meanwhile, makes friends and-once the whole family is safe in New York-falls in love with a man who introduces her to a different New York-a New York of wonder, beauty, and possibility.
"In this YA novel, a young Jewish woman and her family flee persecution and seek a better life in the bustle of turn-of-the-century Manhattan. A pleasant read."-Kirkus Reviews"Stitching a Life is a passionate retelling of one woman's journey."-Readers' Favorite, 5/5 stars"The heroine of this story is my grandmother as well as the author's. For years I wondered about her life in Lithuania as a young girl, about her brave journey to America on her own, what her life was like when she got here, and how she met my grandfather. To my shame I never asked her about any of these things. But Mary Helen Fein has brought them all to life for me in wonderful, vivid colors, and now I see her as the young woman who eventually became my beloved old Nana."-Julian Barry, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Lenny and many other films"This heartfelt immigration story is far more that the story of a single family. It is the story of America and the birth of what became The American Dream for so many immigrants from all over the world. Mary Helen Fein renders this very big story by showing us the small moments of a family who sought refuge from oppression in the arms of a new and welcoming country. Touching, inspiring, and timely, this story stirs patriotism of the most intimate kind and reminds us of the deepest ideals and of this country."-Betsy Graziani Fasbinder, author of Fire & Water and Filling Her Shoes
Mary Helen Fein was born in New York City, in 1943. She attended schools in New York and began writing at the age of twelve when her mother died. Writing has ever since been an important part of her life, a way to understand and process life's events. Mary Helen holds a BA in English literature from Temple University and an MS in computer science engineering from the University of Pennsylvania; she also studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, America's oldest art school, for two years. Today she lives in Northern California, where she owns her own website design company, writes, paints, and teaches Insight meditation. In 2014, she published her first novel, Loss of Deliverance-the story of a young woman's adventures in the drug trade during the 1960s.
Status: No local stock, title imported to order
ISBN-13: 9781631526770
Published: 25 Jun 2020
Published In: United States
Imprint: She Writes Press
Publisher: She Writes Press
Format: Paperback
Height: 216mm
Width: 140mm
Pages: 256

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