I Am Forbidden

Questions of faith, morality, and tradition are at the center of Markovits's novel of a Satmar Hasidic family. Rosalyn Landor recounts the lives of four generations of the Stern family as they escape, first, Transylvania and, then, Paris ahead of the Nazis, eventually settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The heart of the story is the relationship between Atara Stern and Mila, the girl raised as her sister, and the way their diverging experiences of faith shape and separate them. Landor brings a quiet reverence to the novel, helping the listener understand the beliefs and emotions of the conventional family members and of those who find themselves outside the bounds of tradition. J.L.K. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 5, 2012
In this English-language debut, set around WWII, Markovits tells a story of miraculous happenings. A Hasidic boy, saved when his family is killed, in turn saves a girl whose family has tried to flee with their beloved rabbi. Returned to the remnants of the community, then separated, they reunite in Brooklyn, where the rabbi is rebuilding the Satmar community, replicating every tradition, ritual, and law of the old world. But miracles and rituals and laws—even when designed to bring followers closer to God—come at a price, and Markovits pays scrupulous attention to those as well. Tracing the Stern family from Transylvania to Paris and Brooklyn, she focuses on daughter Atara and adopted daughter Mila, closer than close, until Atara wants more than the Satmar world can offer. Atara leaves; Mila stays, desperately trying to accommodate belief and desire. When she comes up with a theological work-around, we not only sympathize but understand; it is, after all, no more tangled and self-serving than the explanation of how the rabbi made it out of Europe. Raised in a Satmar home, Markovits plays fair: the believers are not stupid; their harsh world has beauty. We dwellers in the modern world know what “should” happen, but Markovits shows why, for those in the other world, it’s not that simple.