Moving Historical Fiction Set in Prohibition-Era New York City
The Whisper Sister
Historical Fiction
Lake Union Publishing
September 3, 2024
Ebook, Audiobook, Paperback; 20th Century Historical Romance
419
The author of Modern Girls delivers an atmospheric coming-of-age story set in Prohibition-era New York, tracing one immigrant family’s fortunes and a young girl’s journey from the schoolyard to the speakeasy.
The streets of New York in 1920 are most certainly not paved with gold, as Minnie Soffer learns when she arrives at Ellis Island. Her father, who left Ukraine when Minnie was a toddler, feels like a stranger. She sleeps on a mattress on the kitchen floor. She understands nothing at school. They came to America for this?
As her family adjusts to this new life, Minnie and her brother work hard to learn English and make friends. When her father, Ike, opens his own soda shop, stability and citizenship seem within reach. But the soda shop is not what it seems; it’s a front for Ike’s real moneymaker: a speakeasy.
When tragedy strikes the Soffers, Minnie has no choice but to take over the bar. She’s determined to make the speakeasy a success despite the risks it brings to herself, her family, and her freedom. At what price does the American dream come true? Minnie won’t stop until she finds out.
Jennifer S. Brown’s The Whisper Sister broke my heart. Over and over. And I am telling everyone I know to read it.
The Whisper Sister is the story of Minnie Soffer, a young Ukranian Jewish woman who moves with her mother and brother to New York City in 1920. Her father moved to America at the end of 1913 and, when she steps through the outer thresholds of Ellis Island, she can barely recognize the man who she hasn’t seen in seven years. He has shaved his beard and no longer wears traditional Jewish attire. “You will see how America works,” her papa says. “Everything is different.”
Minnie’s is a coming-of-age story that grips a reader with moments of honesty, heartbreak, and hope. Against the backdrop of Prohibition, the reader sees the stark reality of poverty and prejudice faced by early 20th-century immigrants in New York. Minnie’s name (originally Malka) is Americanized, she is put into a school that conducts classes in English when she only speaks Yiddish, and she and her brother Max are victims of gang violence. Life is difficult, and she wonders whether the “American Dream” is truly worthwhile.
As she grows into a young woman, however, Minnie finds her courage and spark to find her own way in the city. Forced to leave school and work to support the family’s income, Minnie becomes street smart. She finds that she has quite a bit in common with her father, including their shared secret of his Lower East End speakeasy that fronts as a soda shop. Minnie begins to spend more time learning about the profit and danger to be had in the underground bar scene. Maybe someday, she thinks, she’ll become a “whisper sister”: a woman who serves alcohol in a speakeasy.
A series of family tragedies makes the decision for her, and Minnie is forced into ownership of the speakeasy sooner than she expects. I loved reading about the transformation of the bar — and of Minnie herself — after she takes over the place. She is fierce and vulnerable at the same time. She has a huge learning curve but is clever and resilient. There was not a moment in this story when I wasn’t rooting for Minnie to succeed.
Brown’s portrayal of Minnie’s point of view is so vivid that her grief, loneliness, and weariness are palpable. I wish I could share the instances that brought me to tears alongside Minnie in her teenage years, mourning the loss of a significant figure in her life, yet I want to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say, Brown has a remarkable talent for depicting a character’s sorrow with profound sensitivity.
How many people can you lose and still remain whole? How many tiny rips can your heart take before it shreds into pieces too small to repair? … What must my heart look like, with chinks and fissures that would never heal?
“The Whisper Sister” is an exceptional work of historical fiction. Don’t miss this one!
Note: I personally received an advanced copy of The Whisper Sister in exchange for an honest review.
Celeste is a woman who is unwavering about certain things in life; three of those being books, cats, and cold brew coffee. If she can enjoy all three at the same time, it’s going to be a good day. Her favorite genres are fantasy or sci-fi romance, historical romance, and historical fiction but every few books she likes to mix it up with contemporary fiction, a good psychological thriller, or an inspiring memoir. She has a busy schedule working full-time for an online university but she makes sure to unwind each day with stories, either by reading to her elementary school-aged daughter or tucking herself in bed with her Kindle or the latest book she picked up at a local book store.
