A Distant Heartbeat: A War, a Disappearance, and a Family's Secrets
Journals and memoirs, European history, General non-fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Summary
On May 20, 1938, a young man from the Bronx informs his parents that he is leaving for the Catskills to begin his new job as a waiter. Instead, he sails for Europe to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in… the Spanish Civil War, the opening round in the fight against Hitler and Mussolini. The man, Dave Lipton—the author&’s uncle—sends letter after letter home detailing his hopes and begging for forgiveness. He never receives a reply.Decades later, Eunice Lipton stumbles upon clues for this silence, uncovering details of Dave&’s exhilarating political life in New York, his shuttered romantic life, and his deep friendship with another volunteer. A Distant Heartbeat tells a tale of passion and heroism, centered on a fierce competition between brothers, a packet of missing letters, and the unforeseen results of family betrayal.