In Joyce Reiser Kornblatt's new novel, The Reason for Wings, a Holocaust survivor in Argentina undertakes "the duties of witness, " setting down for her missing granddaughter a multi-generational epic of love in the face of catastrophe. Rachel Silver's chronicle of devotion begins with the tale of her grandfather's disappearance in the Danube Delta, and his family's subsequent flight from massacre and war. In temporary refuges -- a Carpathian Mountains spa, a Catholic convent, an elegant Prague apartment, the Berounka caves and Pilsen's underground tunnels -- Kornblatt's characters compel us with their dignity, their humor and their endurance even in the face of the Nazi's relentless genocide.
Finding haven at last in Buenos Aires, the descendants of Dov Landau encounter the Fascist nightmare yet again, swept up this time in Argentina's "Dirty War" of the 1970s. When her pregnant daughter and son-in-law vanish into the military's torture camps, Rachael finds strength and courage in the family stories she creates. A legacy for her granddaughter, Rachael's narrative is a testimony to hope and the heart's resilience.