It is 1903. Bessie is eigh­teen and has left her par­ents and younger sib­lings in East­ern Europe because of the ​“mobs, the mur­der, and the rape.” She is going to join her sis­ter and her new broth­er-in-law in the Unit­ed States. As she is board­ing the ship, a neigh­bor hands her a pil­low, which she asks Bessie to give to her son in America. 

When she first arrives, she goes to her sis­ter’s house, a man­sion on the Upper West Side of New York. Her sister’s hus­band is wealthy but cold and unwel­com­ing. He tells her that she can join the ser­vants in the kitchen and serve their guests who will be com­ing for sup­per. Hav­ing almost noth­ing but the clothes on her back and speak­ing no Eng­lish, she tells him she did not come to Amer­i­ca to be a ser­vant in his house. She will go to live with friends, which indeed she does. This is the first in a series of trau­mat­ic inci­dents she must face but is a hall­mark of her courage, deci­sive­ness, and independence. 

Sub­se­quent­ly, she tries to become finan­cially inde­pen­dent by work­ing at a series of jobs. Each posi­tion gives her addi­tion­al skills and improved Eng­lish. About a year after her arrival, she has the time to deliv­er the pil­low. When she deliv­ers it to the young man from her neigh­bor­hood in Lithua­nia, there is an imme­di­ate attrac­tion and with­in months they are mar­ried. Their first two chil­dren die of scar­let fever, and the pain of their loss is almost unbear­able. How­ev­er, they have sev­er­al more chil­dren and, although one gets polio and anoth­er rheumat­ic fever, they do not die. Then, just when her husband’s busi­ness is going well, he dies of a heart attack at 44. How she resolves this cri­sis is one of the cli­max­es of the book. 

This immi­grant sto­ry is not about some­one who is down­trod­den, but about a woman who came from an edu­cat­ed fam­i­ly in Europe, and is able to make the most of oppor­tu­ni­ties in a free soci­ety. Based on a real fam­i­ly, the book not only gives us a fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry, but also an excel­lent ground­ing in the pol­i­tics, med­ical issues, inven­tions and com­mit­ment to fam­i­ly of the ear­ly twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 11 to adult.