From the Outside

Master storyteller Heidi Harrison (The Four Seasons, When Paris Was Her Lover) weaves together in her latest book From the Outside a rich tapestry of family history and self-discovery.

Helen, a middle-aged adult, immerses herself in the process of asking questions about her own identity, emotionally and physically challenging things about herself that have plagued her for decades. She is the naïve American who has grown up in a coveted bubble yet has felt the stings of the traumas of her family's, particularly her mother's, Holocaust history.Helen is the outsider who, one day later in life, has an experience that throws her off-guard, where she sees something that connects her to her past, something that is hideous, yet also intriguing. She yearns to know more and is immediately pulled into a story that has nothing to do with her, but everything to do with her. From this pivotal moment in her life, she yearns for healing, searching for tiny shoots of hope that can wash...