The Flight of the Veil

by Bruce J Berger

Overview

"A well-crafted tale about trauma and miracles." -Kirkus Reviews

Nicky Covo is a Holocaust survivor. In 1990, Nicky - a Brooklyn psychiatrist - receives a letter from Abbess Fevronia, the head of a women's monastery in Greece. Although Nicky believes the rest of his family died at Auschwitz, he learns that Theodora, a mysteriously silent nun who's lived at the monastery since 1944, may be his baby sister, Kal. With his old friend and new love, Helen, Nicky returns to Greece - to harrowing memories of his fighting with the partisans and to a reunion with his beloved sister. The Flight of the Veil explores the intersections of guilt and memory, faith and tragedy, fate and miracle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684335596
Publisher:	Black Rose Writing
Publication date:	10/08/2020
Series:	A Covo Family Saga , #1
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Following a legal career of 40 years, Bruce J. Berger received his MFA in Creative Writing from American University in Washington, DC. His short stories - including two based upon this novel - have been published in a variety of literary magazines, including Prole, Wilderness House Literary Review, Jersey Devil, Buck Off Magazine, A-Minor Magazine, The Raven's Perch, and Scarlet Leaf. He now teaches at American University.

Editorial Reviews

Readers' Favorite Honorable Mention - Religious Theme

Illumination Book Awards - Bronze Award

As seen in Moment Magazine

"In the intelligent historical novel The Flight of the Veil, a psychiatrist returns to places that were treacherous in his childhood, reconciling internal contradictions." -Clarion Reviews

"Berger has created a compelling Everyman who must wrestle with grand theological questions: In times of great calamity, why does God save only some?" -Stephanie Grant, author of Map of Ireland and The Passion of Alice

"The text skirts between fantastic realism, real realism, and a protagonist who has not taught himself how to go entirely insane..." -Carolivia Herron, author of Thereafter Johnnie

"Author Bruce J. Berger has penned an unforgettable novel in The Flight of the Veil. It is truly an exceptional book!" -Readers' Favorite

From the Publisher

2020-08-13
In this Holocaust novel, a man learns that one of his sisters, long thought to be dead, may be living in a Greek convent.

Brooklyn, 1990. Dr. Nicky Covo is a psychiatrist and widower attempting to help his patients deal with their problems while keeping his own from spilling over into his practice. He’s also a Holocaust survivor haunted by the loss of his entire family at Auschwitz when he was a teenager fighting with the Greek partisans against the Nazi occupation. As he’s leaving his office for the night, Nicky finds a letter from Abbess Fevronia, the head of the Holy Monastery of St. Vlassios in Inousa, Greece. The abbess has reason to believe that Sister Theodora, a taciturn nun who has lived at the convent since 1944, may in fact be one of Nicky’s sisters. At first, Nicky assumes the letter to be a ploy: “He’d heard about missing persons scams, promises to reunite the victim—a sucker—with a long-lost loved one in return for a small, or not so small, payment. He was too smart to fall for something like that.” And yet he can’t shake the feeling—or perhaps simply the hope—that the nun might be his sister Kalli. After his cellist daughter is hospitalized following a schizophrenic episode and Helen, a long-gone friend, reenters his life, Nicky decides he must satisfy his curiosity and return to Greece—even if doing so means confronting the past that he’s long sought to escape. The narrative switches back and forth between Nicky’s present and Fevronia’s experiences with Theodora over the latter half of the 20th century. Berger’s prose is understated and tailored to the interior lives of his characters: “It was past midnight when Nicky got back to his apartment. The long drive along icy highways, through poor visibility, left him shaking. In bed, he couldn’t relax, excited by the time with Helen and the idea that he was falling in love again.” Sometimes predictable, sometimes surprising, the novel is an exploration of faith that manages to challenge and satisfy in equal doses.

A well-crafted tale about trauma and miracles.

Kirkus Reviews