Stella is given upon her birth a piece of enchanted cloth that once belonged to her great-great grandmother Galja. It’s made of blue silk satin, dotted with silver brocaded stars and snowflakes, and hemmed with golden thread. Stella loves the family stories woven into the folds of the cloth – stories of Old Russia, of Berlin in the 1930s, of the Jewish family's escape to America, one step ahead of the Nazis, of their new lives in New York and then, lastly, their return to Berlin. The years leave their mark on the cloth. Once a beautiful wall tapestry, it becomes a curtain, then a tablecloth, a piano shawl and even a cradle's canopy. In Stella possession it's transformed into a blanket, then a dress, a blouse … on and on until it becomes a little bow on a straw hat. But then the hat is blown away and the family heirloom is lost forever. Or maybe not?
Holly-Jane Rahlens’ deeply felt novel about mothers and daughters, our roots – and the golden thread that connects it all.
Original English-language manuscript available.
