The Dream Stitcher

In The Dream Stitcher, main characters Goldye and Maude are connected by a thread that stretches across decades. They will never meet.

The novel moves between two time periods and places, America in 2008 and World War II in Warsaw, Poland.

Hard times are forcing Maude Fields to take in her estranged mother, Bea, whose secrets date to World War II. Bea arrives with a handmade needlepoint recreation of La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde, the iconic 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, which she has stitched in secret at a nursing home. The replica contains clues to the identity of Maude’s father and the mythical Dream Stitcher, Goldye, a Jewish freedom fighter who helped launch the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

As the Nazis move into Poland, Goldye discovers that she can embroider dreams that come true. She becomes an apprentice at Kaminski Fine Fabrics, where she gains a reputation for creating wedding dresses for Aryan brides that bring their dreams to reality. Goldye also wants to help her lover, Lev, raise money for guns so he can launch a rebellion.  She stitches a hummingbird which becomes both a symbol of hope and a catalyst for funds.  She is known as the Dream Stitcher.

Goldye is living a lie, pretending to be Jan Kaminski’s Aryan niece. She and Jan are forced to undertake a dangerous trip to France with a Nazi commander to decipher the symbols of The Bayeux Tapestry, looking for favorable signs that support the Nazis.

In California the tapestry fuels Maude’s quest for the truth about her family, and perhaps love.