Still Life with Memories Series by Uvi Poznansky

Apart from Love contains two threads, volume I and II of Still Life with Memories, woven together (along with two new chapters) around the same events in 1980, when Ben returns to meet his father, Lenny, and his new wife, Anita. It is then that he discovers a family secret. My Own Voice (volume I of Still Life with Memories):Ten years ago, when she was seventeen, Anita started an affair with Lenny, in spite of knowing that he was a married man... moreApart from Love contains two threads, volume I and II of Still Life with Memories, woven together (along with two new chapters) around the same events in 1980, when Ben returns to meet his father, Lenny, and his new wife, Anita. It is then that he discovers a family secret. My Own Voice (volume I of Still Life with Memories):Ten years ago, when she was seventeen, Anita started an affair with Lenny, in spite of knowing that he was a married man. Now married to him and carrying his child, she finds herself condemned to compete with Natasha’s shadow, the memory of her brilliance back in her prime, before she succumbed to early-onset Alzheimer’s. Despite Anita’s lack of education, her rough slang, and what happened to her in the past, Lenny tries to transform her. He wants her to become Natasha. Faced with his compelling wish, and the way he writes her as a character in his book, how can Anita find a voice of her own? And when his estranged son, Ben, comes back and lives in the same small apartment, can she keep the balance between the two men, whose desire for her is marred by guilt and blame?The White Piano (volume II of Still Life with Memories):Coming back to his childhood home after years of absence, Ben is unprepared for the secret, which is now revealed to him: his mother, Natasha, who used to be a brilliant pianist, is losing herself to early-onset Alzheimer’s, which turns the way her mind works into a riddle. His father has remarried, and his new wife, Anita, looks remarkably similar to Natasha—only much younger. In this state of being isolated, being apart from love, how will Ben react when it is so tempting to resort to blame and guilt? “In our family, forgiveness is something you pray for, something you yearn to receive—but so seldom do you give it to others.” Behind his father's back, Ben and Anita find themselves increasingly drawn to each other. They take turns using an old tape recorder to express their most intimate thoughts, not realizing at first that their voices are being captured by him. These tapes, with his eloquent speech and her slang, reveal the story from two opposite viewpoints. What emerges in this family is a struggle, a desperate, daring struggle to find a path out of conflicts, out of isolation, from guilt to forgiveness.What’s in a name:The title Apart From Love comes from a phrase used in the story:After a while I whispered, like, “Just say something to me. Anything.” And I thought, Any other word apart from Love, ‘cause that word is diluted, and no one knows what it really means, anyway.Anita to Lenny, in Apart From LoveWhy, why can’t you say nothing? Say any word—but that one, ‘cause you don’t really mean it. Nobody does. Say anything, apart from Love.Anita to Ben, in The EntertainerFor my own sake I should have been much more careful. Now—even in her absence—I find myself in her hands, which feels strange to me. I am surrounded—and at the same time, isolated. I am alone. I am apart from Love.Ben, in Nothing Surrendered less

Upon leaving NY to serve on the European front, Lenny longs for Natasha. At first, he enjoys fulfilling his military task, which is to write bogus reports, designed to fall into the hands of Nazi intelligence and divert their attention from the upcoming invasion in Normandy. To fool the enemy, these reports are disguised as love letters to another woman. This task has to remain confidential, even at the risk of Natasha becoming suspicious of him... moreUpon leaving NY to serve on the European front, Lenny longs for Natasha. At first, he enjoys fulfilling his military task, which is to write bogus reports, designed to fall into the hands of Nazi intelligence and divert their attention from the upcoming invasion in Normandy. To fool the enemy, these reports are disguised as love letters to another woman. This task has to remain confidential, even at the risk of Natasha becoming suspicious of him. When she arrives in London, he takes her for a ride on the Harley throughout England, from the White Cliffs of Dover to a village near an underground ammunition depot in Staffordshire. Once he is wounded in a horrific explosion—the largest to occur on UK soil—Natasha brings him back to safety, only to discover Lana’s letter to him. Now, the one worry that lays heavily on his mind is this: Would she trust him again, even though as a soldier, he must keep his mission a secret? Would their love survive the test of war? In the past Natasha wrote, with girlish infatuation, “He will be running his fingers down, all the way down to the small of my back, touching his lips to my ear, breathing his name, breathing mine. Here I am, dancing with air.” In years to come, she will begin to lose her memory, which will make him see her as fragile. “I gather her gently into my arms, holding her like a breath.” But right now, during the months leading up to D-Day, she is at her peak, ready to take charge of the course of their story. If you like wounded warrior romance, military romance, family saga romance or romantic suspense, you will find that this is a unique melding of them all. It is a standalone historical fiction novel about WWII, as well as the fourth volume of a family saga series titled Still Life with Memories , which is one of family sagas best sellers of all time. Do you like this genre, especially when wrapped with a second chance in love with a strong female lead? If so, then this story is just for you. less