The Necklace

1937 and onward. Ruth Feugler, a young Jewish girl, walks through the empty, rain soaked streets of Zwickau, clutching her music case. She hears the scream of an elderly Jew as he is beaten up in a nearby alleyway and he watches him fall to the ground. What can she do, a young girl on her own? She wants to should, 'Stop! What do you think you are doing?' but the words stay frozen in her throat. She creeps away and crosses the road. 1950 and onward. Until Catherine Feugler was 10, Ruth, her mother, was withdrawn and undemonstrative. After Cat's 10th birthday Ruth is open, good-tempered and affectionate. What has changed? On Catherine's 10th birthday her mother begins the story of her suffering under Nazis, stories which Cat is too young to hear and which haunt her for the rest of her life. But were the stories true? The novel by Kathy Priddis is a story of wounded memory. It describes how Cat is propelled into a searing journey of self-discovery, where reason is paradox and redemption an illusion. www.kathypriddis.co.uk