The Girl on the Wall: A Memoir

Why wouldn’t Preeva’s parents tell her about the mysterious girl in the picture? Why had her brave and noble fatherAdler Hershi, also known as Samuel, Harry, or Herman Adlerhung that girl’s portrait above his bed instead of Preeva’s? Preeva was raised in New York on her father’s tales of adventure and heroism. But she needed more information about him and his clan of taxi-driving brothers from Mukacheve in Transcarpathia. No one living seemed to have the answers she sought.

Years later, using modern genealogy tools and old-fashioned deduction, researching on the Web, and journeying through Israel, Ukraine, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, she set out to discover the truth about her father’s stories. Join Preeva on her exciting, interesting, funny, sad, and brutally honest journey as she learns the history of her ancestors and in the process becomes more sure of herself and her Jewish identity.