Five Amber Beads
Subtitle
Five Amber Beads is the story of two men whose lives are woven together as they seek to discover the truth about their pasts. Charley Bernstein works in the London art world and is tracing a family history erased by the Holocaust.
In his possession is a diary written by a relative in a labour camp during the Third Reich, and Charley must follow the threads leading from its haunting pages to his own present. In New York an old man is found lying semiconscious on the pavement.
There are no witnesses to what has happened to him and he has no form of identification. When he wakes up in a hospital bed he finds he doesn't recognise the city or his own skin. In a state of total amnesia, he must embark on a struggle to regain his memory.
There are no witnesses to what has happened to him and he has no form of identification. When he wakes up in a hospital bed he finds he doesn't recognise the city or his own skin. In a state of total amnesia, he must embark on a struggle to regain his memory.
When fate brings these two men together they find themselves linked by a unique friendship. Their journey takes them from America to the Middle East and England in an enthralling and moving novel that addresses the nature of identity and belonging.
The Guardian
Questions of identity inform this tender debut. Narrator Charley Bernstein, a London art whizz hired to investigate the legal ownership of paintings offered for sale, is holed up in a New York hospital following a road accident. There he befriends an elderly fellow patient, "Christopher", who was scooped up off the street with neither papers nor memory. Back on his feet, Charley decides to help the confused man, not least because he, too, is researching his own origins. His mother Eva, a German Jew who travelled to England on the Kindertransport in 1939, has recently died. From among her papers emerges a secret diary written in a labour camp by the only family survivor of the Holocaust, her uncle Isy. Haunting extracts from the diary are interwoven skilfully with Charley's reflections as he and his wife accompany Christopher on a journey into the past. Familiar subject matter, perhaps, but the writer's distinctive poetic voice offers a welcome fresh perspective.
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/apr/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview21
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/apr/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview21
Jewish Book Council
Review by Miriam Bradman Abrahams – April 16, 2012
Five Amber Beads alternates chapters to tell two interesting stories, both of which deal with memory. Charley Bernstein, an Englishman, meets and befriends an elderly man, Christopher, who has total amnesia. Charley has inherited his uncle’s diary, written during his time in a labor camp during the Third Reich. His interest in researching his past by meeting up with an old family connection in Israel who can tell him more about the diary parallels his work as an art historian researching the provenance of a certain Modigliani painting that is up for sale. He takes Christopher along with him to England and Israel in the hope of triggering Christopher’s memory, so that he can regain his own past. Aronowitz’s style is descriptive and haunting, and though Five Amber Beads is a quick read, it does not have a neat ending. This novel is based on an actual diary and the author’s real desire to discover the truth of his past, which was kept from him by his mother.
Miriam Bradman Abrahams, mom, grandmom, avid reader, sometime writer, born in Havana, raised in Brooklyn, residing in Long Beach on Long Island. Longtime former One Region One Book chair and JBC liaison for Nassau Hadassah, currently presenting Incident at San Miguel with author AJ Sidransky who wrote the historical fiction based on her Cuban Jewish refugee family’s experiences during the revolution. Fluent in Spanish and Hebrew, certified hatha yoga instructor. [Miriam Bradman Abrahams]
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/five-amber-beads
Five Amber Beads alternates chapters to tell two interesting stories, both of which deal with memory. Charley Bernstein, an Englishman, meets and befriends an elderly man, Christopher, who has total amnesia. Charley has inherited his uncle’s diary, written during his time in a labor camp during the Third Reich. His interest in researching his past by meeting up with an old family connection in Israel who can tell him more about the diary parallels his work as an art historian researching the provenance of a certain Modigliani painting that is up for sale. He takes Christopher along with him to England and Israel in the hope of triggering Christopher’s memory, so that he can regain his own past. Aronowitz’s style is descriptive and haunting, and though Five Amber Beads is a quick read, it does not have a neat ending. This novel is based on an actual diary and the author’s real desire to discover the truth of his past, which was kept from him by his mother.
Miriam Bradman Abrahams, mom, grandmom, avid reader, sometime writer, born in Havana, raised in Brooklyn, residing in Long Beach on Long Island. Longtime former One Region One Book chair and JBC liaison for Nassau Hadassah, currently presenting Incident at San Miguel with author AJ Sidransky who wrote the historical fiction based on her Cuban Jewish refugee family’s experiences during the revolution. Fluent in Spanish and Hebrew, certified hatha yoga instructor. [Miriam Bradman Abrahams]
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/five-amber-beads
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