Come Back for Me

Loss, trauma, memory, and, above all, the ties of family and being Jewish are the elements that weave together this panoramic story. Come Back for Me travels through time and place only to bring us, ultimately, to the connections between generations. Artur Mandelkorn is a young Hungarian Holocaust survivor whose desperate quest to find his sister takes him to post-war Israel. Intersecting Artur's tale is that of Suzy Kohn, a Toronto teenager whose seemingly tranquil life is shattered when her uncle's sudden death tears her family apart. Their stories eventually come together in Israel following the Six-Day War, where love and understanding become the threads that bind the two narratives together. Like Sarah's Key, Come Back for Me deals evocatively with the scars left by tragedy and the possibilities for healing.

Loss, trauma, memory, and, above all, the ties of family and being Jewish are the elements that weave together this panoramic story.

• Imprint: New Jewish Press
• Published: May 2017
• Pages: 304

• epub: 9781487533649
• pdf: 9781487533632
• paperback: 9781988326061

Sharon Hart-Green has taught Hebrew and Yiddish literature at the University of Toronto. Her short stories, poems, translations, and articles have appeared in a number of publications. Come Back for Me is her first novel.

"Sharon Hart-Green's Come Back for Me is a vital novel that begins in bad times and ends in better times. It's a beautifully told story about a family that is all but destroyed during the Holocaust, but whose few survivors carry on and, in the case of Artur Mandelkorn, find some measure of success and contentment, even if the losses of the past are forever with him. Juxtaposed to the Old World story is a New World story that is poignant because it records the trials and tribulations of a normal life with a deeply troubled one as its backdrop. Come Back for Me is an important book."

Joseph Kertes, founder of the comedy and creative writing programs at Humber College and Dean of Creative and Performing Arts

"Evocative and heart-wrenchingly beautiful, Come Back for Me is a must read for anyone with a moral conscience and a soul."

Leah Kaminsky, winner of the Voss Literary Prize for her debut novel, The Waiting Room

"This wonderful debut novel, with great sensitivity and tenderness, captures the emotional contours of loss and renewal that haunt the post-Holocaust universe… a joy to read."

Thane Rosenbaum, author of The Golems of Gotham, Second Hand Smoke, and Elijah Visible

"Sharon Hart-Green writes passionately and intelligently about trauma, history and the true meaning of home. This novel is poignant and compassionate, vividly evoked and deeply satisfying."

Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans

"A gripping tale told from a place in the heart that is both broken and alive."

Ruchama Feuerman, author of In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist and Seven Blessings

"Sharon Hart-Green writes with great generosity of heart and a searing sense of what it means to be buffeted by history."

Jonathan Wilson, author of A Palestine Affair and professor of English at Tufts University

"…a deeply affecting novel that explores unbearable loss and the possibility of starting again."

Tova Mirvis, author of Visible City and The Ladies Auxiliary

"With tenderness and clarity, Sharon Hart-Green's novel tells the story of how one generation transforms inherited trauma into a hopeful future… a lovely debut."

Amy Gottlieb, author of The Beautiful Possible