The Tiger’s Wife meets A History of Love in this inventive, lushly imagined debut novel that explores the intersections of family secrets, Jewish myths, the legacy of war and history, and the bonds between sisters.
When Eli Burke dies, he leaves behind a mysterious notebook full of stories about a magical figure named The White Rebbe, a miracle worker in league with the enigmatic Angel of Losses, protector of things gone astray, and guardian of the lost letter of the alphabet, which completes the secret name of God.
When his granddaughter, Marjorie, discovers Eli’s notebook, everything she thought she knew about her grandfather—and her family—comes undone. To find the truth about Eli’s origins and unlock the secrets he kept, she embarks on an odyssey that takes her deep into the past, from 18th century Europe to Nazi-occupied Lithuania, and back to the present, to New York City and her estranged sister Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli’s past.
Interweaving history, theology, and both real and imagined Jewish folktales, The Angel of Losses is a family story of what lasts, and of what we can—and cannot—escape.
Stephanie Feldman is a graduate of Barnard College. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and her daughter.
Interviews
A Conversation with Stephanie Feldman, author of The Angel of Losses
Your novel's structure is unique in that it contains four whimsical short stories whose plot spans centuries and countries, surrounded by a modern story about two estranged sisters living in New York. Readers feel like they are opening up boxes within boxes as they move through the book. Why did you decide to write your novel in this fashion, and what inspired it?
My first inspiration was another book, a very old gothic novel called The Monk, which also features stories-within-stories. I like that structure, but more than that, I wanted to capture the experience of being immersed in a mysterious tale. When the novel opens, my narrator Marjorie finds a notebook that belonged to her late grandfather, Eli. It describes the first meeting between the Angel of Losses and a young Jewish runaway in 18th-century Venice, who goes on to become a great wizard known as the White Rebbe. Marjorie's hunt for the succeeding tales about the White Rebbe's life isn't just about discovering his fate and the angel's secret. It's also a personal search: the stories' provenance and meaning have something to teach her about her grandfather's past and her family's future.
Where did your research into the archetype of the Wandering Jew take you and what did it ultimately teach you?
I was fascinated by the Wandering Jew, who appears throughout centuries of European literature and legend. Despite his name, he's a Roman, a pagan who taunted Christ as he carried the cross and who is punished with immortality. The legend tends toward anti-Semitism, and I hated that this wonderful character is primarily informed by bigotry. I began researching Jewish folklore and history for analogues so I could write a new Wandering Jew.
I learned about mythic sorcerers, self-proclaimed messiahs, and scholars tracing the paths and limits of the Jewish Diaspora. What they all have in common is conviction; bravery that verges on recklessness; and a deep understanding of exile, both spiritual and geographical. I found myself examining the lengths people will go to for faith and love. The wanderers I discovered are rooted in Jewish tradition, but they embody something universal—a desire for redemption, in all senses of the word.
From graduate students to ancient Rabbis, and from young mothers to WWII survivors, your characters intersect in imaginative ways over place and time. Who were your favorite characters to write, and your favorite story lines? How did you get into the minds of these characters, some real and some imagined?
The majority of the novel is from Marjorie's point of view. She's the graduate student, estranged from her sister and in mourning for her grandfather, and obsessively studying ghost stories to hide from her pain. I loved writing in her voice, in part because she has strong opinions, but it took several drafts to disentangle the other characters from her feelings about them. I came to have a lot of affection for Nathan, Marjorie's brother-in-law. He's a member of a mystical sect, committed to a faith and lifestyle that's hard for outsiders to understand and respect, and on top of that, he appears aloof and self-involved. But as I wrote, I learned to see him differently. I appreciate his strength of purpose, and I'm sympathetic to his loneliness.
Eli (Marjorie's grandfather and author of the fairy tales she's searching for) is an enigma for most of the novel, so it was exciting when I finally got to write in his voice. I think it was most purely fun, though, to write the White Rebbe and Angel of Losses stories. I liked getting lost in a world where anything could happen, and where some fantastic figure or image could appear at any time.
It takes time to portray a character in three dimensions, but I slip into their heads pretty easily. Maybe in another life I would have been an actress.
How have your own life experiences shaped The Angel of Losses?
When I first began writing, I was focused on the White Rebbe and his battle with the Angel of Losses. But the more I wrote, the more the story's scope contracted to focus on Marjorie's family, and soon something else crept into my writing: a baby. I didn't have a baby, but soon Marjorie's sister, Holly, did. I wrote on and on about that baby—he's a tiny infant, but he possesses a weight mighty enough to knock Marjorie's family off its orbit and realign itself around him.
I wrote to explore the questions: How does a baby change your relationships, and change you? How can anyone risk loving something so vulnerable? This was all on my mind since I was on the cusp of starting a family of my own, and my daughter was born between draft six and draft seven. (Or maybe five and six?) When I returned to the novel, I had a much different perspective. I wrote about love, optimism, and the future as capable of transforming the past—however long, or however short—from something that haunts you to something that teaches you.
What writers and genres have influenced your writing?
I like lyrical prose and a good story, as well as literature that experiments with genre. I read pretty widely, but some of my favorites—whom I see reflected in this book—are Judy Budnitz, Sheri Holman, Sarah Waters, and Jeanette Winterson. I also love Manuel Puig, whose work combines an unflinching examination of society and relationships with a sense of romance.
What do you hope readers take away from your novel?
I want readers to enjoy the world of The Angel of Losses, its magic and mystery, but I also want them to see something familiar in the characters: Marjorie and Holly and Nathan and Eli, and the White Rebbe too. They're struggling with things we're all struggling with: family, belonging, loyalty, duty, when to sacrifice and when to walk away. I want readers to sympathize and argue with them. They're all good (if flawed) people who are bound to each other and trying to do the right thing, but have vastly different ideas of what the "right thing" is.
Who have you discovered lately?
This year, I fell hard for the essay collection Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan and the novel The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock. I just finished Submergence by J.M. Ledgard and The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld, two transporting novels that bring together the brutal and the beautiful. Just writing this makes me want to put my "to-read" list aside and go back to these books again.
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