Bending Toward the Sun

This joint memoir details one mother's childhood struggle to escape the Holocaust and the effect it has on her daughter.
"A memoir that takes us through many worlds, through heartache and noble hopes, through the mysteries of family love . . . Read Bending Toward the Sun and enrich your life."—Rabbi David Wolpe, author of Why Faith Matters

A miraculous lesson in courage and recovery, Bending Toward the Sun tells the story of a unique family bond forged in the wake of brutal terror.


Rita Lurie was five years old when she was forced to flee her home in Poland to hide from the Nazis in a cramped, dark attic with fourteen members of her family. Young Rita watched her younger brother and her mother die before er eyes. But the tragedy of the Holocaust was only the beginning of Rita's story.


Decades later, Rita's daughter Leslie began probing the traumatic events of her mother's childhood to discover how Rita's pain has affected not only Leslie's life and outlook but that of her own daughter, Mikaela, as well. The result is Bending Toward the Sun, a collaboration between mother and daughter that brings together the stories of three generations of a family to understand the legacy that unites, inspires, and haunts them all.

"[An] affecting memoir. . . . Vivid. . . . Riveting. . . . An amazing story of wartime survival."—Kirkus Reviews