Would you tell the one you love your most shameful secret?
After Jacob Friedman, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, dies at the age of ninety-eight, his daughter, Ellen Singer, finds a stack of love letters he wrote in 1947 to a Mennonite farm girl named Anna. With the help of two good friends, Ellen matches her father’s letters to Anna’s corresponding diary entries and reconstructs their unlikely romance.
Love, Faith and the Dented Bullet is the story of two emotionally damaged people from two different worlds. Jacob is a Polish Jew who has managed to live through the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the death camp Treblinka. Anna is tied to her Mennonite family and church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She follows the rules but loves books that challenge her and expose her to the larger world. When Anna slips off a step stool while reaching for a book in the library, she falls into Jacob’s arms and discovers a kindred soul who also harbors a secret and is paralyzed by guilt. Forgiving and accepting forgiveness are integral parts of their friendship, and it evolves into a special love.
This book is an accurate World War II historical tale balanced by a gentle romance, and it also is the story of a daughter seeking to understand her troubled relationship with her father by delving into his past. Equipped with book club discussion questions in the back, this novel celebrates our ability to survive, to love, and to help one another heal.
by Carolyn Kleinman
Page Count: 229
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Publish Date: February 10, 2021
Imprint: Milford House
Genre: Romance
FICTION/Historical/World War II
FICTION/Jewish
FICTION/Romance/Multicultural and Interracial
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The author, Carolyn Kleinman, is a woman. She has written a very interesting novel that I would think primarily appeals to women. As a man, I found this book to be well written, challenging, and entertaining.
The crux of the story is related through letters Jacob wrote and diary entries Anna wrote. Readers are presented with various pieces of a uniquely mysterious puzzle. These pieces are ferreted out, in the present, by three women seeking to unravel events that occurred in the 1940s. The riveting task is to sort out these pieces to understand what occurred, what was possible, what could never be, and why.
The author successfully weaves a number of disparate elements: World War II history, romance, religion, culture, grief, loss, and guilt, and points of view from both genders. Each character has a separate personal agenda.
The action takes place in Europe and in Lancaster County, PA – Amish and Mennonite country. Natives of this region will recognize the all-too-familiar aspects of a group doing their best to live an alternative, traditional lifestyle guided by faith, surrounded by a more modern, ever-changing America. Outside readers are treated to learning about religious customs and traditions they may not have known about.
I was surprised to learn this was the author’s first book. She provided an excellent reading experience. I look forward to her next work.
I really found the book, Love, Faith and the Dented Bullet very intriguing. The characters and plot held my interest and drew me into the story. I especially enjoyed the way the author alternated the main characters’ story lines. A fresh approach to this wonderful story. M.T.
Living in Lancaster, the heart of of Amish and Mennonite country, I was anxious to read this historical fiction novel by a local writer. I wasn’t disappointed. Ms Kleinman’s attention to historical WW II Holocaust details and her character development of both Anna and Jacob was compelling. I was silently moved with the author’s sensitivity to both Anna and Jacob, their past histories and how it led to their emotional involvement. A wonderful and moving novel. Joanie S
Love, Faith and a Dented Bullet is a great read that captures the reader and lures him/her into a story filled with history, suspense, confusion, and a unique love story between two very mismatched people. Its author creates a story that coaxes the reader to want to keep reading…wondering, hoping, and thinking about the story and its characters long after the last page is read.
Carolyn Kleinman, in her first book, demonstrates a keen perception into the lives of her characters and the torment faced when the past lies dormant until events shake up their very foundations. In her book, LFATDB, she brings a welcomed dose of wit, intelligence and compassion to the lives a man and a woman who appear to have nothing in common but their commitment to truth and the power of love.
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