Letters from Rifka

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Letters From Rifka
Author	Karen Hesse
Language	English
Genre(s)	Historical fiction
Publisher	Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Pages	148 pages

Letters From Rifka (1992) is a historical young-adult novel by Karen Hesse. It was a recipient of a National Jewish Book Award and several other honours. In the "Author's Note" to the novel, Hesse claims that it was based on the personal account of her great-aunt Lucille Avrutin's immigration to America. ^[1]

[edit] Plot

In 1919, Rifka and her family must flee Russia or face death from the anti-Semitic government; Rifka tells her story in a series of letters to a cousin she must leave behind, written in the blank spaces of an edition of Pushkin's poetry. Rifka's brother Nathan has deserted the army when her brother Saul would have been conscripted; this puts the whole family at risk, and they escape Russia, hoping to join the three older sons who have been living in America for years. Along the way, they face cruel officials, typhus, hunger, theft, ringworm, and a separation that threatens to keep Rifka from ever rejoining her family. She is constantly reminded she must be clever and brave, but her true salvation can only come when she learns compassion.