My Mother's Secret by Alina Adams

An engaging and fascinating story written by Alina Adams building on her own experiences as a Jewish refugee from USSR and what must have been extensive research into the subject. Imagine if all history lessons were this engaging!

I was amazed by the strength and determination showed by Regina throughout the story, her never wavering optimism and drive to keep on going and creating a better life for herself. 

Synopsis (from the publisher):

With his dying breath, Lena’s father asks his family a cryptic question: “You couldn’t tell, could you?” After his passing, Lena stumbles upon the answer that changes her life forever.

As her revolutionary neighbor mysteriously disappears during Josef Stalin's Great Terror purges, 18-year-old Regina suspects that she's the Kremlin’s next target. Under cover of the night, she flees from her parents' communal apartment in 1930s Moscow to the 20th century's first Jewish state, Birobidzhan, on the border between Russia and China. Once there, Regina has to grapple with her preconceived notions of socialism and Judaism while asking herself the eternal question: What do we owe each other? How can we best help one another? While she contends with these queries and struggles to help Birobidzhan establish itself, love and war are on the horizon.

Huge THANK YOU you to Alina Adams for a truly fantastic book, and to History Through Fiction & NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

My Mother's Secret - A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region - by Alina Adams will be available from 15 November 2022, but you can pre-order your copy now. 

MyMothersSecret #NetGalley