Showing results by narrator "S. W. Leicher" in All Categories

Serach and Paloma—daughters of two tightly insular cultures (one Ultra-Orthodox Jewish, the other Latin-Catholic immigrant)—escape their rigidly-defined gender roles to embrace a forbidden union, childfree lifestyles, and ambitious professional careers. They ensconce themselves in a big Brooklyn house, revel in the full range of New York City’s cultural riches and dodge the occasional blast of longing for everything they’ve left behind. It all seems to work until the spring of 2020, when the rules as everyone once understood them shatter.

Serach and Paloma—renegade daughters of two tightly insular cultures—have renounced family relationships, cherished traditions, and communal ties for the sake of their forbidden bond. They are comfortably ensconced in their loving partnership when an unexpected death, a seductive offer, and a crime bring their pasts roaring back into their lives, with devastating results. Acts of Atonement is the ongoing story of the battle between roots and desires.

In America, we're good at dividing ourselves into tribes - into "insiders" and "outsiders" - based on race, background, and beliefs. But what happens when a person is an outsider within her own tribe? Serach Gottesman, the mathematically gifted eldest daughter of a rigidly Orthodox-Jewish Boro Park family and Paloma Rodriguez, the street-smart Bronx-bred daughter of a neglectful Latina immigrant mother, seek broader vistas within a relationship that is forbidden by both of their communities.