When I was younger, I wished I had been born in a concentration camp like my mother, instead of in boring Englewood Hospital. I used to imagin all the prisoners crying mutely with joy while my grandmother lay swallowing her screams so the guards wouldn’t hear.

So writes Deborah Gelb, the teenage daughter of the title character, in her opening chapter.

About Anne Raeff

Anne Raeff, a child of refugees from World War II, grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, and moved to New York when she was seventeen. After living in Spain and Malaysia and traveling extensively, she now resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she is co-owner of an Asian furniture store, Two Serious Ladies.

Her short stories have been published in Side Show and Oasis.

Clara Mondschein's Melancholia is her first novel.