Call Out the Ghosts

After the publication of Make Me the Sky, I often thought about the Horvath and Liebermann families. I wondered how they were doing. I missed them all, even the bad guys. They left their homes in Eastern Europe in the early years of the 20^th century because they experienced poverty, humiliation, and violence, only to arrive in New York City, where they often faced more poverty and violence. Through the redemptive power of friendship, love, resilience, and luck, they came to do well in their new country. That is where I left them.

As time passed, I wondered about their ghosts, meaning the persistent and tormenting memories and painful losses they carried from their troubled pasts. For example, how did the untimely death of a beloved, an act of violence or a question of paternity continue to haunt them? Did the ghosts of the elders also haunt their growing children? Did the children have their own ghosts? I decided to revisit them to ask and listen to what they had to say. They answer in Call Out the Ghosts.

Joan Wexler

Hamden, CT