In search of lost art
Brooklyn BookBeat
In Ellen Umansky’s transporting novel, “The Fortunate Ones,” about fate, guilt and the ability of our memories to sustain us, one very special work of art — a Chaim Soutine painting — will connect the lives of two very different women separated by generations but struggling with similar demons.
Based on historical fact — Chaim Soutine was a Jewish artist who died in France during World War II while in hiding from the Nazis — and featuring a dual-narrative that moves between Vienna in World War II to contemporary Los Angeles, “The Fortunate Ones,” published by William Murrow (an imprint of Harper Collins), unfolds in crystalline, atmospheric prose, revealing a haunting story of longing, devastation and forgiveness and a deep examination of the bonds and memories that map our private histories.
It is 1939 in Vienna and Rose Zimmer’s parents are desperate. Unable to get out of Austria, they manage to secure passage for their young daughter on a Kindertransport, a rescue effort that was organized right before the war broke out, and send her to live with strangers in England. Six years later, the war finally over, with the hope of having one thing to connect a grief-stricken Rose to her lost parents, she unsuccessfully attempts to track down a Chaim Soutine painting that her mother had cherished. Many years later, the painting finds its way to America. In modern-day Los Angeles, Lizzie Goldstein has returned home for her father’s funeral. Newly single and unsure of her path, she also carries a burden of guilt that cannot be displaced. Years ago, as a teenager, Lizzie threw a party at her father’s house and his Soutine painting, which provided lasting comfort to her after her own mother had died, was stolen, never to be recovered. This painting, which now carries so much emotional turmoil and meaning, will bring Lizzie and Rose together and ignite an unexpected friendship, eventually revealing a path to acceptance… and maybe good fortune.