Little does Lily know, when she and Simon search for a Talmudic scholar’s manuscript, that a Pandora’s Box of her own family history will soon open.
But “The (real) Nice Little Blonde Girl” was my own cousin whose story’s basics compare to the character sequentially named Chana/Magdalena/Sofia in the novel. Fictionalizing it is a way of handling the typical problem with family stories–the truth depends on whom you ask. But I’ve found that sometimes the fiction comes surprisingly close to the truth.
There is more to come.
And here is the real Sofia.
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