I Am Forbidden: A Novel
Anouk Markovits
Language: English
Pages: 336
ISBN: 0307984745
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A family is torn apart by fierce belief and private longing in this unprecedented journey deep inside the most insular Hasidic sect, the Satmar.
Sweeping from the Central European countryside just before World War II to Paris to contemporary Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I Am Forbidden brings to life four generations of one Satmar family.
In 1939 Transylvania, five-year-old Josef witnesses the murder of his family by the Romanian Iron Guard. He is rescued by a Christian maid who raises him as her own son. Five years later, Josef rescues a young girl, Mila, after her parents are killed while running toward the Rebbe they hoped would save them. Josef helps Mila reach Zalman Stern, a leader in the Satmar community, in whose home Mila is raised as a sister to Zalman's daughter, Atara. With the rise of communism in central Europe, the family moves to Paris, to the Marais, where Zalman tries to raise his children apart from the city in which they live. As the two girls mature, Mila's faith intensifies, while her beloved sister Atara discovers a world of books and learning that she cannot ignore.
A beautifully crafted, emotionally gripping story of what happens when unwavering love, unyielding law, and centuries of tradition collide, I Am Forbidden announces the arrival of an extraordinarily gifted voice and opens a startling window on a world closed to most of us.
“What is the first?” Schlomo hesitated. Zalman scanned the other children’s faces but they did not know. “The first oath: That we will not storm the wall of exile. The second: That we will not rebel against the nations amongst whom we are exiled. The third: That we will not force the End. “We must not build the Promised Land with our own strength. Our deliverance will come through wonders and miracles and whoever doubts this miraculous redemption doubts the entire Torah. May HaShem free us
opened. In the shivery Parisian dawn, a swell of poppies swayed, each blossom a scarlet freedom quivering on its fragile stem. Williamsburg, Brooklyn AFTER the seven days of celebration, the newlyweds boarded a plane to New York. Josef’s study partner fetched them at the airport. He gave news of the Rebbe’s court, of children born to Josef’s yeshiva-mates during Josef’s stay in Paris. Mila thought she recognized names from her childhood in Transylvania, names of children who had boarded
the city were a book and the walls its pages: LA RUE DU POSSIBLE (street of the possible) Mila climbed the five flights to the terrace where she had taken refuge with the students the night of the riot. A frayed note was stuck to the parapet: MUSE REBELLE, RENDEZ-VOUS À LA PREMIÈRE PLUIE (rebel muse, rendezvous at the first rain) Mila understood the note was for her, the rebel muse with the Brancusi head. Had it rained since the night of the riot? She could not remember. Tomorrow
Zalman and Hannah. It had been hard enough for Atara who had wanted to leave, who had felt exhilaration in risking everything. When she had learned that Zalman hired a detective to bring her home, Atara spent the money she had saved on a ticket to the United States where she would be considered an adult at eighteen. Atara thought of the nights in Manhattan train stations. The club slapped against the policeman’s hands as he commanded slumped men to “Move, move on!” A mumbling woman emerged from
the cracked postcard between the folds of her black skirt, looked up. “Hello, who are you?” Atara spoke of Anghel’s marriage to the beautiful Mila Heller whose parents had lived near Cluj, across the river. She spoke of Anghel’s love for his two mothers. The woman raised the watering can. The water flowed from the spout, some inside the potted nettle. Atara opened her purse and took out the brooch. “Anghel would have wanted Florina to have this.” The old woman eyed the brooch uncertainly.