The Walnut Tree

Susan Merskey is freelance writer in London, Ontario.

It is 1924. The town of Czernovitz in Austria (now part of Ukraine) is
trying desperately to hold on to the glory of its past. Eight-year-old
Sussel, one of the principal narrators of The Walnut Tree, is the
youngest child in a prosperous Jewish family. Max, the other principal
narrator, has a Jewish grandfather, but his mother is Lutheran. Both
Sussel and Max study abroad, then return home. Sussel becomes a
laboratory assistant in her father’s pharmaceutical laboratory. Time
moves relentlessly onward to the outbreak of World War II.

As first the Russians and then the Nazis come to Czernovitz, conditions
for the Jews deteriorate at an alarming rate. Sussel and her father are
forced to treat young German soldiers; her mother and brother, along
with Max and many others, are forced into a ghetto zone and treated
appallingly. Throughout this period, the walnut tree of the title
becomes a symbol of security and continuity. In the early 1950s, Sussel
arrives in Saskatoon. Eventually, she reestablishes contact with Max,
who comes to Saskatoon from Israel with his son and daughter. As Max’s
children reach adulthood, they choose to return to Israel. Finally,
Sussel and Max are free to become the lovers they always dreamed of
being.

Sussel and Max’s interwoven stories are both exciting and deeply
moving. While we are buoyed throughout with the hope of a happy ending,
we have to wait for it until the very last page of the book. Blum
invests historical events with captivating detail and sensuous, poetic
writing. Her book is a worthy addition to Holocaust literature.