AustLit

This story begins when Daniel Baldinger divorces the wife he loves because she cannot bear children. Believing that "a man must have sons to say Kaddish for him when he dies," he marries a much younger woman, and by 1913, Daniel and his second wife Lieba have eleven children, including six sons. Armstrong has created a richly textured portrait that follows the Baldinger children's lives down the decades, through the terrifying years of the Holocaust, to the present. Based on oral histories and the recollections and diaries of more than a dozen men and women, Mosaic explores universal themes of intergenerational conflict, religious repression, complex sibling relationships, and the power of the past on future generations. Diane Armstrong's book is compelling storytelling at its best; from the fascinating detail of Polish-Jewish culture and the rivalries and dramas of family life, to its moving account of lives torn apart by war and persecution, this is an extraordinary story of a family and of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage. - book jacket