Legacy of Silence: A Novel

Legacy of Silence: A Novel

by Belva Plain
Legacy of Silence: A Novel

Legacy of Silence: A Novel

by Belva Plain

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Overview

In Legacy of Silence, New York Times bestselling author Belva Plain creates an unforgettable story of a remarkable family—and a deception that reaches across continents, oceans, and generations.
 
Caroline Hartzinger flees wartime Europe with a shattered life and a devastating secret. Pregnant and unwed, she arrives in America in 1939. Joel Hirsch offers marriage and respectability, hoping one day to earn her love, if not the passion she feels for a man whose memory still haunts them both. With Joel, Caroline builds a new life, determined to bury the past—until her daughter Eve brings Caroline’s carefully crafted world crashing down again, driven by a rage to learn the truth.
 
Now it is Eve’s secret, a legacy that taints her life and puts generations at risk. But with it comes a gift—a new sister, young enough to be her own daughter, who offers hope, then a truth that will finally break the hold of the past.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780307805393
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 08/24/2011
Sold by: Random House
Format: eBook
Pages: 432
Sales rank: 374,707
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

About The Author
Belva Plain captured readers' hearts with her first novel, Evergreen, which Delacorte published more than 30 years ago. It topped the New York Times best-seller list for 41 weeks and aired as an NBC-TV miniseries. In total, more than 20 of her books have been New York Times best sellers.

Before becoming a novelist,  Belva Plain wrote short stories for many major magazines, but taking care of a husband and three children did not give her the time to concentrate on the novel she had always wanted to write. When she looked back and said she didn't have the time, she felt as though she had been making excuses. In retrospect, she said, "I didn't make the time." But, she reminded us, during the era that she was raising her family, women were supposed to concentrate only on their children. Today 30 million copies of her books are in print.

A Barnard College graduate who majored in history,  Belva Plain enjoyed a wonderful marriage of more than 40 years to Irving Plain, an ophthalmologist. Widowed for more than 25 years, Ms. Plain continued to reside in New Jersey, where she and her husband had raised their family and which was still home to her nearby children and grandchildren until her death in October 2010.

Date of Birth:

October 9, 1915

Date of Death:

October 12, 2010

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

Short Hills, New Jersey

Education:

B.A., Barnard College

Read an Excerpt

The little house, during the days remaining, took on an atmosphere of gentle concern as houses do in which someone is ill or has died.  On the last day the husband and wife took Lore and Caroline to the train.

"I will keep in touch with people I know," the doctor promised, "and if there is any news of your parents, Caroline, you will get it at once.  Meanwhile, look forward, and God bless you both."

She would remember the Schmidts to her own last day.


The ship was crammed.  Not only was it almost the end of the tourist season, but there was also the looming war; permanent residents were racing back to safety, and refugees were racing out of danger.  This was farewell to Europe, the end of the past.

Although it made no sense to do so, Caroline immediately read the passenger list.  By some miracle, could her parents have managed to board?  Or could Walter?  And, as the shores of France slipped away and the ship moved through the Channel, she strained for the last look, as if somehow she might glimpse them standing on the shore.  Then she braced herself, left the railing, and went below.

At home they had had their separate rooms, so being cooped up here with Lore was a new experience.  It was uncomfortable for her to be sick in the cramped bathroom within hearing distance of another person.  The North Atlantic was rough; nevertheless, she spent hours on deck.  Tossed against the ship's rail, she groped her way to a chair, there to lie wrapped in blankets and gaze at the cold, tumultuous clouds, the heave and swell of the dull-green ocean.

"You look miserable," Lore said.  "Wouldn't you be better off in the room?"

"Father told me once that fresh air is good for seasickness.  Also, that one should look steadily at the horizon. "Yes, and eat a chicken sandwich.  I've heard that, too.  But I still think you should see the ship's doctor."

"Do you have to wonder what's wrong with me besides being seasick, Lore?  Maybe I have a few things on my mind, on my heart?"

"I'm only trying to help you, Caroline."

"I know.  I didn't mean to be impatient."

Lore sighed.  "I understand."

They kept to themselves.  On this crossing there was none of the gaiety that they had always read about.  Faces were thoughtful, and conversation in the lounges and the dining room was subdued.  People crowded around the ship's officers, asking for news.

"Do you feel as if you're at the theater?" Caroline asked one day.  "None of this seems possible.  Where are we going, Lore?  We don't even know where we're going."

"Well, we know we're going to bump into land.  Wherever the ocean ends, the ship has to stop."

The empty response was purposeful.  Lore was worried about her and did not want to show it.  A moment later, though, she did speak very earnestly.

"I talked to the ship's doctor about you this morning.  He can see you right after lunch."

"Me, and all the rest of the seasick passengers.  He must be bored with the sameness of it.  Anyway, you treat me as if I were a child again, and I wish you wouldn't."

"I'm very well aware that you're not a child.  You're a woman who needs help.  And I am a nurse, remember?  I'm not entirely ignorant.  You forget that."

"All right, I'll go."

"Good.  He's a nice young man--French, but he speaks English or German, whichever you want."

He was a pleasant young man, who began by telling her that he understood she was going through a very hard time.  "Your sister has explained it all."

She hoped he wasn't going to be too sympathetic.  People meant well, but often they did not understand that sympathy can make a person cry.

"So we won't have to go into all that," he said.

"No, since the main cause is seasickness."

"I'll be blunt.  Your sister thinks you may be pregnant."

"That's ridiculous, Doctor."

"Well, if it is . . . If you're sure it is completely impossible, there'll be no sense in going further."

Completely impossible . . . If you're a virgin, he meant.

She put her hand on her hot cheek, murmuring, "It's not impossible.  But I don't think--"

"Let me ask a few questions."

Aware that he sensed her dismay, she was grateful.  The ensuing dialogue, which was very short, proceeded in cut-off clauses whose meaning was, nevertheless, quite clear to both of them.

"--not always regular, so that I was not concerned--"

"--but nausea, generally in the morning, I believe?--""--true, but nerves, all the trouble, not sleeping much--"

"--might undo your blouse, if you don't mind--"

She minded terribly, but minded more that the wrong answer might send her into another fit of weeping.  But to be pregnant!  And she had asked Lore whether she felt as if she were watching the theater . . .

"I'm not a gynecologist," the young man said, carefully not looking at Caroline, "but by the appearance of your breasts, I think it's safe to conclude that you are well into the second month."

"My God," she whispered.

"You must have a proper examination when you get where you're going." Now he looked at her.  "Above all, keep it a secret.  You might have a lot of trouble at immigration if you don't.  I believe they have something in the States called 'moral turpitude. '"

Her fingers fumbled at the buttons on her blouse.  Her heart hammered.  Yes, it was like a small hammer held by a frantic hand.  She stood up, thanked the man, and stumbled out of the office.  Then she went to her suitcase--in which, for some stupid reason, she had packed a little photo of Walter--walked to the deck, and threw it overboard.

She had expected a display of some sort from Lore; shock, or dismay, or wringing of hands, but there was none.  Instead, she was calm and tried to console.

"I'm not going to ask you any questions.  There's nothing to ask, anyway.  It happened, and it has to be faced, that's all. You're not the first, Caroline, nor will you be the last.  We'll think of something.  First, let's get our feet on land."

They spent half the night talking while the ship creaked and sped westward.

"I'm stunned, Lore.  I hate him.  How quickly love can turn to hatred!"

Lore put a hand over hers.  "Listen to me.  He was no good.  Your parents were right.  Not that I want to make you feel guilty, but they only went along with it for your sake.  They didn't want to deny you any joy, but they had their doubts.  And if you recall, so did I."

Caroline tried to imagine herself walking into the library at home and telling her parents, who would be reading in the chairs beside the big window, that she was pregnant with Walter's child.  It was unimaginable.  She cried softly.

"I loved him so, Lore."

"Of course you did.  But you'll get through.  Remember.  You're not alone."

She looked into the good, homely face.  "Thank God for you, Lore," she said.


They were two days away from the Statue of Liberty when the news came.  It was September 1, 1939.  Germany had invaded Poland, and the Second World War had begun.  If ever there had been a chance for Father and Mama, there was none now.  If ever it had been possible for Caroline to speak of "the end of the past," it was not possible anymore.  Her past was to stay with her for the next seven months, and for the rest of her life.

Interviews

On Thursday, April 16th, barnesandnoble.com welcomed Belva Plain, author of LEGACY OF SILENCE.


Moderator: Welcome, Belva Plain! We're so glad that you could join us. How are you this evening?

Belva Plain: Well, I am very well, thank you, and happy to be with you.



Janine P. Ackerman from Boston, MA: I've just received your book and have begun the first chapter -- and I love it! It is so haunting that the book begins just after Crystal Night. What drew you to write about this particular part of history?

Belva Plain: It's one of those things that are unforgettable, like Napoleon advancing on Moscow, or like our own Revolution. That's what drew me to it. I think it will be remembered always as one of the tremendous events in history that can never be forgotten.



Hilda from College Park, MD: How long have you been writing? Have you ever had another career beyond that as an author?

Belva Plain: I have been writing since I was in high school. That sounds funny, but I have. And I sold my first short story when I was 25. I've been writing ever since, but it took me a long time to get to a novel, that is true.



Mark from Oklahoma: Your book sounds like it would make a fantastic film. Has there been any talk about making a movie?

Belva Plain: The book just appeared in the stores this week, and of course, I would be delighted if someone was to make a movie out of it, but if not, I would be happy if just enough people read it and enjoy it.



Betty Grantz from Whitestone, NY: Hello Belva, I just wanted to tell you that I've read all of your novels and you are just a pure joy. I would like to know, where do you live? Do you go anywhere different to write, perhaps the European countries that you use as settings? Thank you so much!

Belva Plain: First, let me thank you for the very, very lovely things that you've just said. Nothing could make a writer happier than to be appreciated. In answer to the second part of your question, I never write about any place that I haven't seen. I think it doesn't ring true, I think readers can tell the difference between something that is valid and something that is made up. I live in New Jersey.



Barry from New Mexico: Do you read historical fiction, or do your tastes for reading other people's work stray from what you write? Whom do you like to read? What are you reading right now?

Belva Plain: It's a hard question to answer, because I am very curious and I like to read almost everything from everywhere. Right now, I am reading that lovely book ANGELA'S ASHES about a man's childhood and early youth in Ireland. Last year, I read an old book, DEATH COMES TO THE ARCHBISHOP, a novel about your part of the country in New Mexico, where I visited last year and loved, and want to see again.



Winnie R. from Oregon: Which of your books was the most challenging to write for you? Thank you, I love all your books.

Belva Plain: Thank you for loving all my books. The most challenging was CRESCENT CITY, because it took place before the War Between the States and during that war, and of course, I wasn't present during that time so I had to do a good deal of research, and I learned a lot, which was fun.



Howie from Greensboro, NC: Where did the title for this book come from? Were there any other lurking possible titles out there?

Belva Plain: You know, getting a title for a book is just like getting a family to agree on naming a new baby. I had to rack my brains for this title, and then I had to get approval, because you never know whether somebody else has a similar title. And it takes a lot of thinking to come up with something that people will remember, and that isn't too close to another person's title. Of course, I did want something with the word "legacy" in it, because, as you will read, it is about a legacy.



Carol and Robert Fusey from Palm Coast, FL: Greetings and Welcome! Where did you do your research for the subject of your new book?

Belva Plain: For this book, I didn't have to do so much research, because it's relatively recent, and one has read so much about it and known people who endured those days and times. So really, I can say, the book almost wrote itself.



Katherine from Newark, NJ: Mrs. Plain, do any of the characters in your book resemble people whom you have met in your life? I am a big fan of yours, and I have read every single one of your books -- I look forward to each new one!

Belva Plain: Again, I have someone to thank. No, I do not ever write about anyone who can be recognized, because I don't think that's right to do, but inevitably, a writer has to draw on experiences with many people so that a character in a book might have some traits that the writer has seen, observed, but the way the writer combines them, nobody would recognize him- or herself.



Dana from Ocean City: If you could spend the afternoon with any one of your characters from any of your novels, which would you choose?

Belva Plain: Well, that's really a hard one.... Let me see.... Well, I think maybe Paul from EVERGREEN. I found him to be very romantic. A little bit tragic, which is always exciting.



Betty Grantz from Whitestone, NY: You and I are about the same age -- tell me, how do you feel when you reflect on your life and years as a writer? Where "are you," so to speak, in your life as you envisioned it?

Belva Plain: I did not envision the success that I have been fortunate to have, and for which I am very grateful. I wrote because I love to write, and probably would write if I was never published. You ask where I am in my life. I am hoping that I will be able to continue as I am now, because it is a wonderful thing to be able to get up in the morning looking forward to one's work.



Marco from Greenwich, CT: Have you ever written any contemporaries? If not, why? What do you like about historical fiction?

Belva Plain: Oh, two questions there. Well, I like historical fiction to read and to write, because how can we know where or what we are now, if we don't know where we came from? But, I will say that in fact, most of my recent books have been very contemporary. I have written about problems on Wall Street, I have written about adoption, about child molestation, and wife abuse, all very contemporary problems.



Penny P. from Pennsylvania: How did you do your research for LEGACY OF SILENCE? Were there any points in the plot where you were tempted to stray from the path history took?

Belva Plain: No, I really do believe that everything in the book is historically accurate, beginning, for instance, with the committees of volunteers who assisted people arriving in this country without any funds, without any friends, frightened, lonely. I have known people on both sides, both the volunteers who helped and the people who needed help, and these are scenes that I shall never forget, so there was no difficulty for me in writing such scenes or many others.



Ulysses from denmaker.org: Whom did you grow up reading?

Belva Plain: Oh, I'm not quite sure about what age growing up, so I'll start at the beginning.... I was lucky to have parents who read a good deal, and one of the things I most remember is being taken to bookstores on my birthday, and always getting a few books as presents. So, I have continued doing that with my children and grandchildren. I remember the graphics that my mother first chose for me. The usual ALICE IN WONDERLAND and TREASURE ISLAND, but that's what got me started on reading good books. Not that I didn't also read the funny papers. I did.... But it's good to let a child find out about the best things that have been written and form a taste for them. So, with that start, I went on to things suitable for older people. Reading the famous books we all know like MOBY-DICK, THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP, and so on.... And to this day, I still go back and read things that I read when I was a child or a young person, and I reread them, because now they are different books since I am a different person. However, that's not to say I don't read the newest things that come out. I do, and it's one of the joys of my life.



Denise James from Huntington, NY: I love all your books that I have read, and I am thrilled to see that you have a new one out! I can't wait to read it. I am interested to hear what it is about, in your own words. Thank you.

Belva Plain: This is a book with a surprise ending. You should of course, never look at the ending first, but certainly not with this one, and for that reason, I don't want to tell you that much. But I can say this, that it begins with a young girl's travel to America as the war is breaking out in Europe in 1939. She brings a great problem with her. Now, I hope you'll read it, and I hope you'll like it!



James P. from Oak Park, IL: I don't know how many novels you have written, but I do know that you've had 14 amazing bestsellers! To what do you attribute this amazing success?

Belva Plain: Well, let's just say God's been good to me. Well, he has, but you'll want to hear more than that. Based on what people tell me, that my characters are real enough for people to recognize them. I know I look for that quality when I read, I want to think of myself in that plot and ask, "How would I act if something of that sort happened to me? Does this character ring true?" So, probably, that's what people have liked.



Iris from Vero Beach, FL: With such a successful career, you would be the authority to askWhat do you do to keep your stories fresh? What makes a good novel for you?

Belva Plain: I repeat part of the success, of course, is the reality of the characters, and the empathy that you can have with them. But, no matter how well you round out your characters, you do not have a book unless there is a story. The greatest classics of all time are fundamentally good stories. You have to have a "whodunit," not as in a mystery story, necessarily, but as in a life story What happened to these people? How are they going to handle their problem? How is it going to end? Unless you have a page-turner, no matter how well you've drawn your characters, you have no story.



Betsy Ann from Williamsburg, NY: If you were to set yourself in the time period of any of your books, which would you choose? Why?

Belva Plain: I tell you frankly While I have said during this program that history is so important for us, the truth is that I cannot find any period more worth living in than the present, because, number one, we have come very far in our civilization, and number two, we still have very far to go. And I think this is a very challenging time in which to be young. And like all of us, I wish I were younger.



Jen from Newark, NJ: It seems that the two lead women in your novel, Lore and Caroline, are so different -- with which do you best identify?

Belva Plain: Without revealing anything that might spoil the book for anyone who has not yet read it, and I assume that most people haven't yet read it as it only appeared in our favorite bookstore, Barnes & Noble, this week, I will say that Caroline is more to my liking.



Herb from Philadelphia, PA: Would you ever consider writing a novel about present-day politics?

Belva Plain: It's interesting to me that you would ask that question, because it happens that it's just what I am working on now. This book is a baby that was just born yesterday, and you can't really tell much about a baby's character at this stage.



Naomi from Harrisburg, PA: Writing about this period in history seems like a much more sensitive subject than say, the turn-of-the-century United States. Did you sense that you were taking any precautions in telling this particular story?

Belva Plain: No, I didn't take any precautions. I told the story, I think, exactly as someone who experienced it might tell it. At least, that's what I tried to do, and I hope I have succeeded. I think I made my sentiments very clear, and if you read it through to the last page, and you remember my present answer, you'll see what I mean.



Nadine P. from Palisades Park, NJ: This is not the first time you have written about this period in history. I found another book on the site, BLESSINGS, which deals with the Holocaust. How do the two books compare?

Belva Plain: BLESSINGS was a book about adoptions in America, so you must be thinking about another one, but that doesn't matter, I'll answer anyway. I think you meant TAPESTRY, and of course the facts are the same, but the characters entirely different, and there are so many aspects of what happened during the Holocaust, that I think there can be almost no end to the books that can be written about it. In this book, I really dealt with what happened to people who escaped it, but who were damaged by it, nevertheless, whereas the setting of TAPESTRY -- that is, the section dealing with the Holocaust -- took place in Europe.



B.B. from Boynton Beach, FL: Will you return to the characters of LEGACY OF SILENCE in a later book?

Belva Plain: I don't have any plans to do it. I think it's a story complete in itself, but I never say never. Right now, I'm working on something that's entirely different, an American novel that takes place in a southern state.



Annie B. from Baltimore, MD: Do you like the Internet as a way of getting in touch with your fans?

Belva Plain: Well, I just think it's absolutely a miracle. I don't understand exactly how it works, but for that matter, when I turn on the ignition in my car, I don't completely understand how that works, either. But I have to say, I am enjoying this immensely.



Michael Gumbert from New Richmond, WI: What was the hardest part of writing a novel like yours?

Belva Plain: For me, and I can't answer for other authors, but for me the hardest part is getting the whole story mapped out. I always say it compares with taking a trip across the United States. You know your starting point, and you know where you want to end, but you have a great choice of routes, you could reach California from Maine taking 20 different roads. And so, when you have a story you want to tell, you know the beginning and you know the end, but you have to figure out how to make it interesting along the way, so the reader will want to get to the end. So I would say that the hardest thing for me to do is to have my outline finished. After that, with the outline, or what I call the map, the writing is very pleasurable and relatively easy.



Janet from St Louis, MO: I see that you mentioned that CRESCENT CITY took a lot of research to write because it took place during the Civil War. I recently reread that novel because I liked it so much. Are there any other cities in the United States, or the world, which have sparked your interest as much as New Orleans, the setting for CRESCENT CITY?

Belva Plain: Of course, anyone who's been in Rome or Paris is fascinated, they're marvelous, but I have not ever written anything that is deeply involved with the life there, because I'm not Italian or French. But New Orleans is an American city, and I am an American, so even though I wasn't alive during the period of CRESCENT CITY, it is, in a sense, a part of my past. And I really had a wonderful time going down there from New Jersey, walking the streets, and putting myself back 100 years or more, walking those same streets in a hoop skirt and living through the painful days of that old war.



Joe from San Jose, CA: You have been writing for a long time. How has your work changed over the years?

Belva Plain: Well, I think the only real change I can see in my work, and of course, it's very hard to judge one's own work, is that I have moved from writing historical novels to writing contemporary ones. I did not set out to do this. It just seems to have evolved naturally because the last 10 or 15 years have seen an accelerated rate of change in our lives, and there is so much to write about that I am, I am grateful to say, finding new ideas all the time. I think that is the chief change in my work.



Moderator: Thank you again for setting aside time this evening for us, Ms. Plain. And thank you to all who wrote in with fine questions. Ms. Plain, any final remarks before we close?

Belva Plain: My final remark is that I am just so happy and fortunate to be able to talk to all these wonderful people who tell me nice things and make me want to get back to work tomorrow morning. And also, my thanks to Barnes & Noble, where my books are on display and where I, myself, am a longtime, steady, browser.


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