Davita's Harp

For Davita Chandal, growing up in New York in the 1930s and 40s is an experience of indescribable joy--and unfathomable sadness. Her loving parents, both fervent radicals, fill her with the fiercely bright hope for a new, better world. But the deprivations of war and the Depression take their ruthless toll. Davita, unexpectedly finds in the Jewish faith that her mother had long ago abandoned both a solace to her questioning inner pain, and a test of her budding spirit of independence.

"Mr. Potok has opened a new clearing in the forest of American literature.... As Davita comes to life, so does the book.... Hitler's death camps, Franco's troops, the atomic bomb...don't defeat Mr. Potok's characters.... These people nourish each other in the worst of times. In doing so, they nourish Mr. Potok's readers, too."--The New York Times Book Review