The Bone Mother by David Demchuk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
David Demchuk’s beautiful, hauntingly written novel THE BONE MOTHER is told in a series of monologues by the inhabitants of an Eastern European town on the cusp on World War II, as well as their descendants in the modern day. But these are no ordinary characters — many of them are supernatural beings, creatures out of folklore who live there in relative peace and prosperity, sheltered from the outside world and working at the local thimble factory. Think Edgar Lee Masters’ SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY meets Clive Barker’s CABAL. But as World War II breaks out across Europe, a special force known as the Night Police comes for the residents of the town, persecuting them, rounding them up, and killing them. It put me in mind of the treatment of the Jews and other so-called “undesirables” by the Nazis, and I’m sure that’s no accident. Demchuk’s writing is exquisite, as one might expect from an award-winning playwright, and his imagination seems boundless. THE BONE MOTHER is a deeply powerful and touching novel that will leave you forever changed.
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