My Darling Elia Book

At Montreal's huge Sunday flea market, an elderly man is stricken when he finds a crude locket among a box of jewelry at one of the booths. Recovering, he explains that it was a gift to his beloved wife, who disappeared from their Kiev home in 1941, during the German occupation. He has been searching for her ever since.It is now 1982. After that first encounter, Elia comes back to the flea market every Sunday to tell his story. It's the tale of a young Jewish man risking his life to find his beloved.Elia recounts his search for his pregnant wife through war-torn Eastern Europe, barely escaping death at Baba Yar, encountering suspicious partisans, posing as a Nazi soldier, witnessing the Polish ghetto and ending in a concentration camp.The war over, he follows the trail to Montreal - where it fades away. But three women are moved by his story and join the hunt.At the story's unexpected end, readers will believe that love and hope can in some way survive horror and inspire good.AUTHORBIO: Eugenie Melnyk, herself of Ukrainian descent, was a Canadian writer who lived in Montreal.In a tragic denouement to this story, she succumbed to a stroke as this book, a 10-year mission of her own, was being published.Read More