Review: The Lost Family by Jenna Blum

The New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Uscreates a vivid portrait of marriage, family, and the haunting grief of World War II in this emotionally charged, beautifully rendered story that spans a generation, from the 1960s to the 1980s

In 1965 Manhattan, patrons flock to Masha’s to savor its brisket bourguignon and impeccable service and to admire its dashing owner and head chef Peter Rashkin. With his movie-star good looks and tragic past, Peter, a survivor of Auschwitz, is the most eligible bachelor in town. But Peter does not care for the parade of eligible women who come to the restaurant hoping to catch his eye. He has resigned himself to a solitary life. Running Masha’s consumes him, as does his terrible guilt over surviving the horrors of the Nazi death camp while his wife, Masha—the restaurant’s namesake—and two young daughters perished.

Then exquisitely beautiful June Bouquet, an up-and-coming young model, appears at the restaurant, piercing Peter’s guard. Though she is twenty years his junior, the two begin a passionate, whirlwind courtship. When June unexpectedly becomes pregnant, Peter proposes, believing that beginning a new family with the woman he loves will allow him to let go of the horror of the past. But over the next twenty years, the indelible sadness of those memories will overshadow Peter, June, and their daughter Elsbeth, transforming them in shocking, heartbreaking, and unexpected ways.

Jenna Blum artfully brings to the page a husband devastated by a grief he cannot name, a frustrated wife struggling to compete with a ghost she cannot banish, and a daughter sensitive to the pain of both her own family and another lost before she was born. Spanning three cinematic decades, The Lost Family is a charming, funny, and elegantly bittersweet study of the repercussions of loss and love.

Hardcover, 432 pages

Published June 5th 2018 by Harper

Terri's Thoughts

I wanted to like this story, I really did.  Sadly I struggled the entire way through it.  I almost gave up before completing it however since I always see a story through, I suffered to the very end.

I did not like one single character in the story  Not one!  There was nobody to get behind.  you would think with Peter's story I would at least be able to get behind him but he really did not exhibit any personality.  The match of Peter and June made zero sense to me hence putting the story even more off kilter to me.

Some may be able to read deeper in to the story than I apparently did and see tragedy and beauty as the story advertises.  I did not, I was bored to tears the entire way through with a cast of either obnoxious, selfish or boring characters.  Sadly, this was not for me.  A little disappointing since I have enjoyed the other works of Blum.

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