Books with author Andrea Cheng

In this compelling first novel, a Hungarian girl comes to terms with being a Jew during World War II. Marika covers roughly ten years in the life of a Hungarian girl named Marika, the only daughter of a wealthy stockbroker and his wife. Marika is six years old when WWII erupts, and for her the war is far away. At first it intrudes on her life only on occasion, such as when her uncle advises her to give her rag doll Maxi "less Jewish" name, or when her father urges her to attend Catholic mass with her classmates rather than to study "Israelite religion" with her friend Zsofi. But aside from news of war and of the danger faced by Jewish friends and relatives in other countries, life around Marika is quiet and ordinary. Her biggest concern is her parents' separation and the wall that has been built in their house to create a separate apartment for her father. As the war comes closer to Budapest, however, Marika finds that there is no escape from the fact that, by Hitler's definition, she and her family are Jews.