After breaking her hip, 78-year-old Rheabie Slominski realizes that it's finally time to share the secrets of her life with her granddaughter, Shoshana.
In this novel, "A Woman of Heart", the left-wing politics of Petaluma, California's thriving community of Jewish chicken ranchers of the 1920s is recreated as Rheabie Slominski tells the "true" story of her life to granddaughter Shoshana.
Rheabie's tales about the chicken ranchers, a vibrant cluster of Zionists, anarchists and communists struggling to survive the Depression, are populated by the most surprising characters: unhappy family ghosts, mysterious Guardian spirits of the land, and strange Uncle Mas.
"Could Grandma be slipping into Alzheimer's?" Shoshie wonders. Yet, when the Guardians begin to show themselves to Shoshana and she stumbles on even deeper family secrets, everything she knows about herself and her history is called into question.
Shoshana struggles to believe her grandmother's strange tales. As she discovers her own abilities to see ghosts and Guardians, Shoshana also uncovers deeper family secrets about alcoholism, domestic violence, adultery and homosexuality.
When Rheabie is beset by illness and begins to die, Shoshana tries to heal what has been revealed. "A Woman of Heart" will attract those drawn to history, politics and family drama; contemporary literary fiction; and Jewish culture.
The presence of the family ghosts and, in particular, the Guardians (as the living essence of the land) resonates with ecologically-minded readers, while the relationships in the book appeal to a wide female audience.
"Listen up! You know, dolly, in this life we are not always given the expected stories."
