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Press-Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AN AUTHOR TO DONATE 20% OF PROCEEDS TO “PLANT A TREE IN ISRAEL” PROGRAM
To celebrate the publishing of her novel, “Looking for Sarah: A Story of Survival” in an E-book format, Margarita G Silver will donate 20% of all donated proceeds to the Jewish National Fund in support of its forestry and ecology activities.
Miami, FL October 30, 2010 — Miami author and resident, Margarita G Silver has announced that she will donate a significant portion of all proceeds from the donation towards the download of her e-published novel to the Jewish National Fund. A historical fiction novel, “Looking for Sarah: A Story of Survival” recounts the coming of age journeys of two young Jewish women during the two very different chapters of Soviet Union’s history. Drama, heartbreak, and horror fill this fictionalized family memoir that spans four generations and mirrors Russia’s extraordinary century of turbulence.
“The idea to write the book came to me when I heard my great-grandmother’s amazing story of loss and survival,” said Margarita G Silver, the author of “Looking for Sarah”. “We had to whisper these kinds of stories in those times, for even walls had ears. As I wrote, the novel was slowly becoming a compilation of my great-grandmother’s story, of my own experiences and of the experiences of other young Jewish women, whose fate was to grow up during the worse times of institutionalized anti-Semitism in the USSR”.
While many stories have been told about the violent bloodshed of the Revolution, the terror of the Stalin era, and the horrors of Holocaust, nothing has ever been written to describe the humiliating everyday experience of growing up a Jewish woman. “Looking for Sarah” provides a first-hand account of and a unique window into that experience and of how it shaped the identity of the young Soviet Jewry.
The author, Margarita G Silver, was born and grew up in Moscow, USSR. At the age of nineteen she convinced her family to flee the Soviet Union in search of freedom. With the help of the American Jewry the family settled in the US, where they built their lives anew. But the experience of growing up Jewish in one of the most anti-Semitic places on Earth stayed with Margarita and she decided that the story must be told. “Looking for Sarah” is this story.
For the duration of the donations towards the download of this book the author will donate 20% of the proceeds from each downloaded copy to the Jewish National Fund in support of their Plant a Tree Program.
For the summary of “Looking for Sarah” click here.
You can view a sneak preview of the novel at SmashWords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3630
For About the Author click here.
To Contact the Author click here.
Looking for Sarah: A Story of Survival
This novel is an inspiring tale of courage, strength, love, and female experience in the 20th century Russia. It explores the connections between generations, relationships between mothers and daughters, and the impact of past on present – all against the whirlwind of history and the struggle of being a Jew in the Soviet Union. Written from personal experience and from the experience of many others, “Looking for Sarah” brings memories of a foreign life and paints the picture of how communism and anti-Semitism affected the Russian Jews.
Drama, heartbreak, and horror fill this fictionalized family memoir that spans four generations and mirrors Russia’s extraordinary century of turbulence. The novel’s two parallel plots weave around each other as they recount the coming of age journeys of two young Jewish women during the two very different chapters of the Soviet Union’s history.
The tale begins in 1914 when, in the darkest days of pogroms, a family flees its shtetl in the Pale of Settlement in search of a better life in Argentina. Their trip coincides with the onset of World War I and, amid the chaos, one of their daughters, Sarah, is left behind. Alone in war-torn Russia, Sarah survives the political maelstrom of the Revolution, the vicious cycle of Stalin’s purges, the Holocaust of the Great Patriotic War, and the aftermath of the Soviet Victory. Through the pain, bloodshed, violence and humiliation Sarah never gives up the hope of seeing her family again and, when the opportunity presents itself, she takes it. She defects thereby making a decision that will later bring havoc into her great-granddaughter Sonya’s life.
Sarah’s journey is intermixed with that of Sonya. Sonya lives, breathes, and marches for Lenin and the ideals of the Soviet State. She grows up during the stagnant times of Brezhnev and Chernenko, the KGB-ridden years of Andropov, and the perestroika-clad thaw of Gorbachev. The intricate details of Sonya’s childhood and adolescence provide a never before-seen window into the world of Jewish upbringing amidst the Soviet anti-Semitism of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Through a life of insults, discrimination, and humiliation, Sonya develops courage and strength – two character traits she will draw upon to overcome the dire consequences when Sarah’s fate is revealed.
The two parallel stories – Sarah’s and Sonya’s – come together to shatter Sonya’s already fragile happiness. Resigned to her status as a second class citizen, Sonya has pinned her hopes and dreams on marrying her childhood sweetheart, Sasha. Sasha’s family is Russian and his father sees this impending union with a Jewish girl as a threat to his son’s future career in the Soviet Foreign Service. By means of deceit, manipulation, and a vast network of connections he digs up Sarah’s file and embellishes it enough to succeed in breaking up the relationship. Sasha leaves Sonya when he learns of her great-grandmother’s history. Devastated and unexpectedly pregnant, Sonya decides to undergo an illegal abortion and to change her life. She sets out to learn the truth she has never been told about her great-grandmother and, as a result, she makes a decision that will uproot her entire family.
You can view 30% of the book as a sneak preview and you can purchase the book at SmashWords here:
