Hidden on the Mountain--World History/Asia

Title: Hidden on the Mountain
Authors: Deborah Durland Desaix and Karen Gray Ruelle
Call Number: DS135F89
ISBN: 0823419282
Pgs.: 275

Review:
From Booklist
In this inspiring photo-essay, the authors tell an amazing rescue story about a Nazi occupied Protestant community in south-central France that pulled together to save several thousand Jewish children from the Holocaust. Kathy Kacer's Hiding Edith (2006) tells a similar story from the viewpoint of one child. More detailed, this account is based on extensive research and interviews with 30 survivors and rescuers, who recall in diary-style entries how it was. Many readers will focus on the dramatic overviews and commentaries, but the personal details, accompanied by black-and-white photos, are unforgettable, too: living with fear; waiting for a letter ("Why haven't Mama and Pap sent for me?"); escaping to Switzerland. The research is a big part of the book, and the authors have provided extensive documentation as well as time lines, maps, bibliographies, and source notes that can help researchers find out more. Readers slightly younger and older than the target audience will find this compelling, too. Pair it with Carol Matas' novelization of the story, Greater than Angels (1998). Hazel Rochman
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Unaccustomed Earth--American Literature

Title: Unaccustomed Earth
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Call Number: PS3562.A316U53 2008

Pages: 333 pgs.
ISBN: 978-0-307-26573-9

Review: From Booklist
*Starred Review* Following her thoughtful first novel, The Namesake (2003), which has been made into a meditative film, Lahiri returns to the short story, the form that earned her the Pulitzer Prize for her debut, Interpreter of Maladies (1999). The tight arc of a story is perfect for Lahiri’s keen sense of life’s abrupt and painful changes, and her avid eye for telling details. This collection’s five powerful stories and haunting triptych of tales about the fates of two Bengali families in America map the perplexing hidden forces that pull families asunder and undermine marriages. “Unaccustomed Earth,” the title story, dramatizes the divide between immigrant parents and their American-raised children, and is the first of several scathing inquiries into the lack of deep-down understanding and trust in a marriage between a Bengali and non-Bengali. An inspired miniaturist, Lahiri creates a lexicon of loaded images. A hole burned in a dressy skirt suggests vulnerability and the need to accept imperfection. Van Eyck’s famous painting, The Arnolfini Marriage, is a template for a tale contrasting marital expectations with the reality of familial relationships. A collapsed balloon is emblematic of failure. A lost bangle is shorthand for disaster. Lahiri’s emotionally and culturally astute short stories (ideal for people with limited time for pleasure reading and a hunger for serious literature) are surprising, aesthetically marvelous, and shaped by a sure and provocative sense of inevitability. --Donna Seaman