In her great novel “The Defiant Beauty of the World”, Linda Grant tells the story of a family's will to survive, of some scoundrels and almost happy women.
Fairy tales begin when someone goes on a journey.” This is also the case in 1913, when 14-year-old Mina Mendel went to the forest to collect mushrooms. Suddenly she hears voices, young, exuberant male voices. Mina stops, even at 14 years old she knows that it is necessary to avoid male voices in the forest. But she also knows: “There comes a point where you either keep going or go back, you have to make a decision and you can't stay stuck in one place. If you did that, time would freeze and the story would end. Then Mina goes towards the voices. And it all begins.”
What Mina did in the forest at that time will not only go down in Mendel family lore in Linda Grant's wonderful novel, “The Defying Beauty of the World,” but will also become the driving force for Mina and her older brother Jossel to leave Riga . for America we will finish.