Pictures of the Past by Deby Eisenberg

Pictures of the Past. Deby Eisenberg. Studio House Literary, 2011.
                           Adult Fiction.

 

In 2004, a Holocaust survivor, stunned to see a painting of a young girl that is hanging in the Art Institute of Chicago, recognizes it to be the same one that was in her neighbor's home in Germany before the war years. How has it come to be in the museum? What is its connection with wealthy philanthopist Taylor Woodmere who has apparently donated it?  The book takes readers to 1937 where a young man goes to Paris on business, but falls in love with a beautiful girl from Berlin. An alternating tale is that of Rachel Gold in the 1960's Chicago. Rachel falls in love, falls herself pregnant, and moves to New York City to live with a family friend who is also a Holocaust survivor.  Years later, why does Rachel's grown son feel a connection to the same painting? Can Taylor Woodmere unravel the mysteries? This is a book about the puzzles, interconnections, and powerful events that happen in wartime, but continue throughout the years.