Introduction

Vilna 1941. An inquisitive young girl asks her grandmother why she is carrying nothing but a jug of lemons and water when they are forced by the Germans to evacuate their Vilna ghetto. "Something to remind me of the sweetness," the wise woman tells her, setting the theme for what they must remember to survive. Set during World War II, the novel is the parallel tale of two Jewish girls, cousins, living on separate continents, whose strikingly different lives promise to converge. Brooklyn-born Mira Kane is the talented eighteen-year-old daughter of a well-to-do manufacturer of women's knitwear in New York. Her cousin, eight-year-old Rosha Kaninsky, is the lone survivor of a family abroad exterminated by the invading Nazis. Yet, unbeknownst to her American relatives, the orphaned Rosha did not perish. Desperate to save his child during a round-up, her father thrust Rosha into the arms of a Polish Catholic candle maker, who hides her? putting her own family at risk. The headstrong Mira, who dreams of escaping Brooklyn for a career as a fashion designer, finds her ambitions abruptly thwarted when, traumatized at the fate of his European relatives, her father becomes intent on safeguarding his loved ones from all threats of a brutal world. Everyone must challenge his injurious and spiraling survivor guilt. Though the Kanes endure the experience of the Jews who got out, they reveal how even in the safety of our lives, we are profoundly affected by the dire circumstances of others. Like The Book Thief and Those Who Save Us, The Sweetness is a poignant portrait of life during a most tragic time in history.

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Excerpt

Vilna 1941


Like most Friday nights, I wait for Poppa by the parlor window. Leaning against the pane where someone recently threw a fistful of stones, I run my fingers along the spidery break. Bubbe looks up from her crocheting (she is making a wool cap for me in this heat) and scolds. She warns me to move away from the window. There is such fright in her voice that all the hairs on my arms stand straight up. Yet still I don’t budge. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. In the first chapter of The Sweetness we are introduced to young Rosha who sees signs of impending doom. What were some of the early hints things were about to change for her family? How does the child display her fears?

2. When we meet Mira for the first time, she, too, exhibits a sense of anxiety and yet she is focused on her fashion designs and career. Is this how she deals with her concerns?

3. Charlie Kane’s survivor guilt is an ongoing theme in The Sweetness. How would you describe his character, and what, besides his guilt, do you think drove him to make many of his decisions?

4. How would you compare Avram Juraska to Charlie Kane? As fathers and husbands, how are they alike and dissimilar?

5. There’s a quote from the Talmud that says: When you save one life, it is as though you have saved the entire world. What do you think creates that the kind of selflessness as shown by Marta, the candle maker? Do you believe there are people like her in the world today? Does she remind you of other literary characters?

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