Into the Forest

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In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods―through brutal winters, Typhus outbreaks, and merciless Nazi raids―until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the war they trekked across the Alps into Italy where they settled as refugees before eventually immigrating to the United States. Comme si c’était si simple, comme si ça n’était pas une idée dévastatrice et dangereuse de laisser croire qu’il existe des incestes heureux, inoffensifs, joyeux. Liberated by the Red Army, the family eventually crossed into Italy and lived for a time as refugees before making their way into the United States, where they were reacquainted with a young man who survived the same ghetto, thanks to Mrs. Rabinowitz. Set in one of the world's last remaining primeval forests, this story of horror and heroism has the trappings of a grim fairy tale: Once upon a terrible time, after so much loss and devastation, one unlikely couple found their happily ever after." After Nell almost leaves her sister to follow the dream of her boyfriend who shows up months later at her door, and after Eva is brutally raped by a stranger, the girls slowly succumb to the realization that things are not going to change. They need to take drastic steps to take care of themselves and forget their dreams. Nell lets go of her childish crush and Eva stops dancing. Together they work the land, learn about the forest and what it can provide for them and store food for the winter.

it is a great story of sisterhood and mental survival to changed circumstances. but if you read a lot of survival literature, you can't help but worry about these girls and their future among the living. What makes Into the Forest truly memorable is Frankel’s uncanny empathy for her characters... She never allows us to look away, nor do we want to, no matter how terrible the events of this powerful narrative.” Electricity sputtered to a halt long ago, as did telephone service and running water. Mail delivery also slowed to a stop. Banks and businesses in town closed. Planes stopped flying. Stores were looted and abandoned. Gas became invaluable, as did antibiotics, plastic bags, working batteries and dependable (not rumored) word from “the outside.” Fifteen months pass without power. Several roof beams break during a storm and Eva goes into labor. The continually weakening house creaks and groans as both the storm and Eva's labor progresses. Fearing the house will collapse, the sisters flee to a hollowed out tree stump that once served as their play house where Eva gives birth to a baby boy and rejoices. Returning to their ruined home, Eva decides to burn the house down with the remaining gas so they will be safe because anyone passing by will think they died in a fire. They gather all the food and items important to them: books, keepsakes and a family photo. At nightfall they set the house ablaze, then journey into the forest. Jean on the Red Carpet at the premiere of Into the Forest at the Toronto International Film FestivalFrankel immediately captures the attention of her readers as describes a 1953 wedding in Brooklyn, New York attended by Philip Lazowski, a Yeshiva student who attended classes at Brooklyn College. We soon learn that during the war that Philip left his home in Bilitz as the Nazis were massacring Jews and was protected by a woman and her two young daughters as the Nazis had moved on to the village of Zhetel. While attending the wedding Philip recognized a woman named Miriam Rabinowitz, the same person who had saved his life. This story and numerous others are recounted by Frankel as she delves into the many horrors that the Holocaust wrought to so many people. Frankel’s monograph is a story of how people react to certain death and the triumph of the human spirit.

Evan Rachel Wood on Into the Forest and Revolutionary Roles for Women", Time, 21 July 2016 , retrieved 4 May 2023 Somewhere in the near future, a dozen miles outside a town like Cloverdale or Red Bluff or Redding (it’s called “Redwood” in the book), the two sisters try to carry on with life in their family cabin, gradually realizing that the worst has happened.Merry semi-pagan, slightly literary, and very commercial Christmas,” our father would always announce on Christmas morning, when, long before the midwinter dawn, Eva and I would team up in the hall outside our parents’ bedroom. Jittery with excitement, we would plead with them to get up, to come downstairs, to hurry, while they yawned, insisted on donning bathrobes, on washing their faces and brushing their teeth, even—if our father was being particularly infuriating—on making coffee. This audiobook is narrated by Natalie Pela who has a lovely English accent. The story was interesting enough to make a long car ride less tedious. However, I would have preferred it to be at least 2 hours shorter. Of course, after 11 hours of listening, it's hard to tell if I was weary of the story or mostly just the car ride. With the house gone, they could let go of their old hopes and dreams and were free to create new ones. The house also made them targets to looters and rapists and so the destruction of their home was a form of protection, both physically and emotionally. I'm disturbed that Nell NEVER gets past this dog wagging. Look, I brought you your slippers! Please notice me! The mom says "You're your own person" repeatedly. They should have let her go to school and be around other kids. It wasn't fair to keep the dog - whoops, I mean girl- in their wings in case they wanted her around. The point of the book was kinda bullshit because in the end Nell is still just collecting facts and cowtowing to her sister. How is that creating anything? It's the meaninglessness of Eva's dancing. What exactly is it expressing? Some pretty vague concepts about what ifs the luxuries were over. But these are PEOPLE in the story not what ifs. Food does change as it is spoiling... C’est une scène d’une idéalisation assez malaisante, dans laquelle une jeune femme violée par un inconnu dans les bois guérit en faisant l’amour avec sa propre sœur.

The book points to a myriad of rules and mores that were broken. The forest would produce its own socio-economic structure that created friendships but also a degree of hostility as the woods created a society of have and have nots. Frankel describes in intimate details how human relationships became tools of survival for women. It was clear to many that the only way a woman might survive was if they had a relationship with a man for protection. If these relationships happened to produce a pregnancy, abortion and allowing babies to die became the norm as any sound, i.e.; a crying baby could give away a position and result in another Nazi Selektion that would massacre the Jews. Frankel delves into the fears, the highs and lows of living in the forest with death facing them each moment, the preparations to fight, and the interactions with others with the result that the reader should develop a high degree of empathy for victims of the Nazi genocide. After Eva’s baby comes, the result of her painful rape, the girls decide to take one last step. They burn their home and move to the forest where they feel comfortable. This beautifully written and often profoundly moving novel by gets mired early in a murderously sluggish pace as patient readers wait for something to happen. Nell and Eva are two young sisters who are not quite women but no longer children. During the delicate years of teenage emotional and physical maturity, the world around them collapses from economic failure and the sisters find themselves completely isolated from civilization. A chance meeting at a weeding puts a young man on a path to find the woman who saved him from being shipped off to a camp and killed.

Lorsqu’Eva comprend qu’elle est enceinte, les arguments qu’elle invoque pour le garder flirtent avec ceux des anti IVG. Le fœtus est un «bébé » et évidemment qu’elle va le garder car « que pourrait elle faire d’autre? »