The World In Pieces by Bart Midwood

I enjoyed reading this story of the Brody family. If you think your family has issues, I’m sure this one may top it all. The juiciest tidbit is that Lo Yadua is the son of Anchel and Surah Brody and they are brother and sister! The family is Jewish and that’s just to give you an idea on how they may have handled that. The journal starts with Blima Brody, mother of Anchel and Surah. She was a free-spirited girl. A girl who spoke many languages, thus she was able to talk with anyone – and this she enjoyed dearly. She translated letters and love notes for everyone. She was a young girl in love with Yusef. However, her father had different ideas. Yusef had a sister who married a non-jew, thus Yusef’s family was un-clean according to Blima’s father. He had already arranged for Blima to marry someone else, but she wanted no part of this. After her father broke Yusef’s legs, she decided to go ahead with the arranged marriage. The story gets juicer and I will spare you the details about Surah having sex on a ship with a bunch of sailors! A true story, the author tells a tale of Anchel and Surah Brody who, upon their death, left him a box filled with letters and diaries. After getting in contact with Lo Yadua, then his wife, then their daughter, he publishes part of the letters into this story. In between the stories of Anchel and Surah, he also prints the correspondence between himself and Lo Yadua. When Lo Yadua is killed, the correspondence is continued with his wife, Ilana. She adds more to the tale of her in-laws as well. It’s quite interesting and I enjoyed reading it.