Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

August 31, 2020

Searching for Family Secrets in the Italian Jewish Past

Mixed Messages.

In her recent memoir Mixed Messages, Eleanor Foa recounts her and her sister’s quest to uncover their family’s history in Italy following their mother’s death. Born in that country just before World War II, Foa had left with her parents for the U.S. as infant—just before it was too late for Jews like them to escape. Diane Cole, calling the book a “charming . . . jumble of family and historical research, emotional introspection, and convivial travelogue,” describes what they found:

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