Only the River

March 2, 2020
Raeff’s engrossing tale of refugees and war (after Winter Kept Us Warm) traces the connection between two families affected by the Nicaraguan Revolution. After the Anschluss in 1938, 13-year-old Pepa, a Jew, flees Vienna with her family for Nicaragua, eventually settling in El Castillo, where, as doctors, her parents dedicate themselves to fighting yellow fever. At 14, Pepa walks though the jungle at night and watches people dancing in the plaza, where she meets a boy named Guillermo and falls in love. However, a few years later, while Pepa carries Guillermo’s child, her family abruptly leaves for New York, and she is separated from Guillermo forever. Pepa marries a Jewish man and has another child with him, Liliana. Decades later, Pepa’s son, William, sets out to join the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, where he is presumed dead in 1982. Guillermo’s daughter, Federica, also fights the Contras. It isn’t until Liliana travels to Nicaragua in the mid-2000s to find answers about her older brother’s disappearance, that Pepa’s and Guillermo’s stories merge again. Raeff’s seamless web artfully depicts the characters’ will to survive and to fight for what they believe in. This heartfelt story of separation and confluence will move readers.

April 15, 2020
A Jewish family's escape from Nazi-occupied Austria to find refuge in Nicaragua in 1942 sets a young girl on a winding path of grief, creating a legacy of loss that spans decades and crosses continents. When 14-year-old Pepa finds refuge in the small village of El Castillo, where her parents, both doctors, have come to battle yellow fever, she falls into a romantic relationship with Guillermo, a local young man. Trauma holds Pepa in its oppressive grip, causing a paralysis in her after she finds out she's pregnant. Just as they secure visas to the United States, Pepa's parents discover her condition and decide to eliminate the problem themselves. It's when the family arrives in New York City that the book grounds itself, as if waking up from an ephemeral fever dream. This mirrors Pepa's emotional journey but also transforms Nicaragua into an almost imagined place, a more primitive location framed by an unintentional neocolonial viewpoint. Still mourning her life in El Castillo, Pepa leaves school to work at a Jewish paper, where she meets her future husband, Oskar, a concentration camp survivor. The narrative is told from alternating characters' viewpoints, with the ghost of Pepa and Oskar's son, William, slipping in and out. William, who went to Nicaragua in 1982 to fight with the Sandinistas despite having the barest familial link to the country, is reported to have died in his first battle. Liliana, Pepa's daughter, goes back to Nicaragua and El Castillo in present time after the harsh end of her long-term relationship. Guillermo and his own daughter, Federica, also tell their stories as Liliana and William float into their lives, altering them forever. A haunting, intricately layered novel, but the central characters' ties to Nicaragua ultimately lack a deeper believability.

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April 15, 2020
Teenage Pepa and her family are forced to flee their home in Vienna during WWI in Raeff's (Winter Kept Us Warm, 2018) third work of fiction. They relocate to a small town called El Castillo in Nicaragua, and Pepa's parents, both doctors, make it their mission to eradicate yellow fever. Pepa and her younger brother are left alone for long stretches at a time and forced to fend for themselves. When Pepa meets Guillermo, the two become inseparable and quickly fall in love. Told through alternating voices, the story follows Pepa and her family as they move to New York. This is an epic generational tale set against the backdrop of revolutionary war in Nicaragua. Years later, Pepa and Guillermo find that their paths cross again after their own children become involved in the Sandinista movement sweeping the country with a vengeance. Filled with lyrical prose and lush descriptions of the setting (including Pepa's explorations of the jungle and its animal inhabitants), this is a thoughtful reflection on a family and its legacy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)