Shavlan

Shavlan – A Woman’s Journey to Independence.

A biographical novel based on a true story.

Sarah Taube cowers in the bakery cellar clutching her three children, listening to the sounds of shooting by the White Cossacks during a pogrom. In order to survive, she enters into a bargain with the ruthless Commissar, Dimitri, an orthodox Jew transformed by tragedy into a high-ranking Bolshevik. Will Dimitri be able to protect Sarah Taube and her family? Will Sarah Taube be reunited with her wanderlust husband who leaves for South Africa to seek his fortune and find himself, and will she realize her life long dream to go to America?

This family saga is based on true events in the life of the author’s maternal grandmother spanning three continents and five decades. It tells of a woman’s journey to independence, while living through World War I, deportation from her village in Lithuania, the Russian Revolution, the Civil War, a pogrom, and Lithuanian independence.

As the story unfolds, the reader is witness to the struggles of Jews in the Pale of Settlement and the strategies they use in coping with Tsarist rule and the anti-Semitic society governing them. Some acquiesce, trying to adapt, some oppose the Tsar by joining revolutionary groups, and others by emigrating. The author weaves a matrix of emotions and ideas into her characters as they move in and out of her grandmother’s life. We learn how an uneducated, naïve young girl, raised in Shavlan, a Lithuanian shtetl, becomes an independent, strong-willed and forceful woman, schooled in the ways of the world––her education obtained by being a witness and participant in world-shaking events.

Review

“Shavlan by Eunice Blecker is a beautiful historical novel that begins in a small Ukrainian village in 1871 and ends in New York City, 1923. This fascinating tale blends the author’s family history with fiction. Sarah Taub, the matriarch of the family dreams of moving to America where her brother has settled. She marries a man, who after experiencing life in The United States, vows never to go back. But, unable to find himself in their small village, he follows a friend to South Africa, hoping to find his place and fortune there. Sarah Taub remains behind with the children, waiting and waiting for communication from him. When WW1 breaks out, the Jews of Shavlan, including Sarah Taub and her children are relocated to Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine. In this village, far from her home, Sarah Taub becomes her own woman.The story is written in Mrs. Blecker’s beautiful literary voice. Her emotional connection to these characters is obvious. I was very moved by the epilogue, which gives the follow-up information about the characters beyond the end of the story. The book runs a bit long, but the characters and the setting are so engaging, it's easy to lose track of the book’s length. Through the realistic portrayal of characters, the author brings humanity to a dark period of Jewish history.” (Reviewed By Susan Sofayov, author of Jerusalem Stone, The Kiddush Ladies, and Defective)

“…Eunice Blecker has constructed a fictional saga of a woman who discovers her own inner strength as she lives through a turbulent era…”
“…The author describes traditional life in the shtetl, where Sarah Taube learns to help in her aunt and uncle’s bakery, and dreams of the places and experiences she learns of through letters…”
“…In 1915, with German troops approaching the area, all of the gubernia’s Jews are expelled and sent to Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine, where again Sarah Taube must find a place to live and a job to feed her family. The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 upends her life again…”(Excerpts from Review by Mary-Jane Roth, Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington’s publication Mishpacha, Early Summer 2018)

Eunice Blecker was born, raised, and educated in Baltimore, Maryland. She worked full time as a treasurer for an engineering company while raising two daughters. Fascinated by the stories her grandmother told about the life she led in the old country, Eunice was inspired to tell her story.

Eunice has been a member of The Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington for more than twenty years, and in 1996, after visiting her ancestral town, Shavlan, her article “To Walk Their Walk” was published in their Quarterly Publication, Mishpacha, Winter 1997.

Visit the author’s website at:

www.shavlan.com