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The Imposter Bride

3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 · rating details · 1,460 ratings · 278 reviews

When a young, enigmatic woman arrives in post-war Montreal, it is immediately clear that she is not who she claims to be. Her attempt to live out her life as Lily Azerov shatters as she disappears, leaving a new husband and baby daughter, and a host of unanswered questions. Who is she really and what happened to the young woman whose identity she has stolen? Why has she le...more

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published March 20th 2012 by Harper Collins Canada (first published 2012)

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2012 Giller Prize Longlist

5th out of 13 books — 28 voters

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

2013: What the Over 35s Have Read So Far

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May 16, 2012 Janie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: janie-bookreviews

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Imposter Bride was shortlisted for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most distinguished literary prize for the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English. I was thrilled, because I loved this book.

The Second World War is over and in a small room beside a banquet hall, mail-order bride Lily Azerov sits on a couch with her new husband Nathan Kramer. She has come to Montreal from Poland, via Palestine. It was Nathan’s brother, Sol, who was supposed to marry Lil...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book and found the characters to be vividly written. Lily comes to Canada from Palestine to be married but her groom sees her at the train station and rejects her. His brother marries her and we learn that Lily Azerov is not who she claims to be, and soon after her daughter is born, she abandons her family. This abandonment hangs over her daughter’s life like a shroud.
The story is told through different points of view and it’s very deep and personal for everyone in it.

I also found...more

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Jun 09, 2013 Claar added it

In het boek De oorlogsbruid ziet Sol Kramer op het perron in Montreal zijn toekomstige vrouw Lily Azerov, hij ziet haar als: “een verloren koffer die van niemand was”. Hij laat haar over aan haar lot.

Lily trouwt met zijn broer Nathan, samen krijgen ze een kind. Enkele maanden later verlaat Lily haar gezin.

De vluchtige aanwezigheid van Lily heeft een immense invloed op het leven van haar dochter Ruthie, het kind wat ze na de geboorte achter heeft gelaten. Ruthie groeit op bij haar vader Nathan en...more

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May 31, 2013 Jenny Brown rated it 3 of 5 stars

"The Imposter Bride" is a lovely book alternating chapters between the mother--the imposter bride--and her daughter who was abandoned at an extremely young age. The writing is rich although I wish occasionally the psychological side of the mother (Lily) was delved into a bit more deeply, as I can see how experiences would affect her, but only on a surface level.

The daughter (Ruth) speaks in the first person; Lily is told from the third person. This makes keeping track of which chapter belongs t...more

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May 11, 2013 Trisha rated it 3 of 5 stars

The title is deceptive because this isn't Lily's story, this is her daughter's story; which is fine except the novel isn't much of an identity story either. Character development was sluggish and inconsistent, the title character was rather disappointing and not nearly as developed (nor unfortunately, as interesting) as other characters were. I left not entirely satisfied with character motivations, though I wonder if this was an intentional effect of the nature of the narrative.

I didn't have a...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was very intriguing in the beginning.. With a very promising main plot line and several minor subplots that were equally interesting. I see the story has been described several times already, so I won't. I simply found it disappointing. We are taken through Ruth's entire life feeling her emptiness and asking her questions. Wondering what tormented Lily so much...why rocks arrived as birthday gifts... And so forth. There was a mystical uncut diamond and mysterious journals.. One empty....more

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Mar 07, 2013 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book has a promising beginning. It is 1946, and Lily Azerov has come to Montreal to meet Sol Kramer for an arranged marriage; they have never met. Upon seeing her get off the train, Sol has a change of heart, but his brother Nathan likes what he sees, and steps up to takes Sol’s place.

Lily doesn’t adjust well, in spite of Nathan’s and even Sol’s infatuation with her. (Sol regretted his actions almost immediately.) Lily is like someone haunted, and spends most of her time alone and closed aw...more This book has a promising beginning. It is 1946, and Lily Azerov has come to Montreal to meet Sol Kramer for an arranged marriage; they have never met. Upon seeing her get off the train, Sol has a change of heart, but his brother Nathan likes what he sees, and steps up to takes Sol’s place.

Lily doesn’t adjust well, in spite of Nathan’s and even Sol’s infatuation with her. (Sol regretted his actions almost immediately.) Lily is like someone haunted, and spends most of her time alone and closed away in her room.

When the daughter that Lily has with Nathan is just three months old, Lily disappears, leaving a note to say she is sorry. No one hears from her again until the daughter, Ruth, turns six. At this point, in April of 1953, Ruth picks up the main narration of the book, beginning when she receives a strange birthday package that the rest of the family agrees is from her mother.

The story then proceeds with alternate narrators. Most of the time we follow Ruth as she grows up, trying to deal with the emptiness of having a loving extended family, yet knowing her own mother walked away from her. Over the years she gets a few more packages from her mother (albeit unsigned); they always contain rocks and a notation about their provenance. But no one really knows what happened to Lily, any more than why she left.

Lily even takes a turn as one of the narrators, although we still don't learn much from her except that the experience of the Second World War caused her a great deal of pain and guilt. Without knowing the details, her story just didn’t elicit any sympathy or compassion in me for her.

As the years pass, Ruth finally gets closer to the truth and finally has the opportunity to find out everything, but declines to pursue all the answers. (And why she doesn't is a bit of a mystery, since she spent her whole life wondering these things.) We are given a lot to think about instead however, such as what the nature of love is, and about the ways in which love and the forms it takes help define the nature of the self. This latter point is the most crucial to this story: the kind of love that means the most to you and the role it plays it your life can show more about who you are and what you need that anything else you say or do.

Discussion: Apparently the opening premise is similar to what happened to the author’s grandmother, who came to Canada from Eastern Europe expecting to marry a man who rejected her upon her arrival.

It serves well as a story arc, but would work much better if we ever got even the slightest idea of who some of the characters are as people. There aren't many characters, and so it is particularly unsatisfactory that we come to know so little about them. Who are Sol and Nathan and why do they react the way they do? What about Sol's future wife, on whom it fell to raise Ruth? The author doesn't tell us much at all. We get a little more information about the mother of Sol and Nathan and about Sol’s future mother-in-law. As for Ruth’s birth mother, we end up knowing hardly more about her at the end of the book as we did in the beginning. It left me feeling disappointed, as if I had wanted stew and had to settle for broth.

Evaluation: There are some big gaps in the major plotline, oddly combined with the inclusion of some rather elaborate minor plotlines that are dead-ends, i.e., neither really going anywhere nor contributing much to the story. Nevertheless, it is a compelling read, and it was shortlisted for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most distinguished literary prize for the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English.

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Jan 31, 2013 Valentina rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that makes me wonder what the publishing companies are really thinking. I’ve read many self-published titles that are much, much better than this book, so what’s the deal?
The main problem is that the book is so dull. I kept hoping for it to pick up, for some of the pieces to click together, but it just droned on, as if the writer had to reach a particular word count. None of the characters leave any kind of mark in the reader; they are all superficially written and com...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Jessica Knauss rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lily Azerov comes to Canada from Israel in 1946 to marry a man she's never met. Every decision she makes has long-lasting effects on everyone whose life she touches, most especially on her daughter, Ruth.

Lily abandons her new family when Ruth is a tiny baby, leaving tidbits of information about who she was and why she left that Ruth has to piece together over the course of her life. As Ruth grows and evolves, she learns that curiosity about her origins is the most human thing about herself. It o...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Jessica Sloan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not sure what I expected when I picked this book up. I guess I expected some sort of a variation on the tale of one woman tricking a man into marrying her in guise of someone else. But, that's not what this story is at all. Well, I guess it kind of is, but it's so much more than that.

While reading this book I felt profoundly sad. Mostly because of the circumstances from which many of the characters came from - WWII. Many of them being refugees who were some from post traumatic stress disorde...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Erin rated it 2 of 5 stars

I think Nancy Richler wanted to write a *good* book. *The Impostor Bride* dances around being good, but lacks rhythm and grace and so slouches awkwardly around the dance-floor, making it awkward for everyone reading, but the effort at goodness is altogether too sincere to turn away.

The plot offers originality - a war-bride shows up in Canada, is scorned by her betrothed because he sees “something” amiss in her, she marries his brother, gives birth, abandons the child and runs away. We learn ove...more I think Nancy Richler wanted to write a *good* book. *The Impostor Bride* dances around being good, but lacks rhythm and grace and so slouches awkwardly around the dance-floor, making it awkward for everyone reading, but the effort at goodness is altogether too sincere to turn away.

The plot offers originality - a war-bride shows up in Canada, is scorned by her betrothed because he sees “something” amiss in her, she marries his brother, gives birth, abandons the child and runs away. We learn over the course of the novel the practical reasons for her abandonment (the titular “impostor”), and are meant, I think, to also contemplate the psychic and affective reasons she might also leave. The book makes a sincere attempt to point the finger at the (oft suggested “unspeakable”) atrocities of the Holocaust as being “too much” for the young bride, but without entering these events - or even shadows of them - into the plot *and* without offering Lily’s narrative point of view (even a third person limited would have gone a long way) these “unspeakable” reasons are left to the reader’s speculation and are not, as Richler might have hoped, compelling enough to justify the abandonment of a child. Indeed, our first person protagonist - the abandoned daughter - rightly points out that many of her peers have parents of this generation of “unspeakable” events who did not leave (even if they do exhibit erratic behaviour), so why did *her* mother leave?

For this reason the plot events that supposedly explain the abandonment do not hold water. Nor does the eventual explanation of how members of her family knew, and didn’t tell her. Nor, too, the hastily and inexpertly constructed reunion scene (not a spoiler, I think, because the progression of the plot is such that it can *only* resolve in a reunion). A note on the reunion (as it particularly irked me as it’s the climax and the apparent justification for so much weaving in and out of time - we’re meant to get *here*): not only were the scenes rushed, especially when contrasted with the earlier scenes that explore in great length everything from depressed smoking to school yard bickering, but the explanation offered by Lily which is in effect the explanation of “I have no explanation,” would be fine, indeed, it would be complicated and profound, if we had Ruth *do* something with the explanation, think something about it, reflect on it, reject it, respond, react. Instead we witness the reunion, hear the paltry account of why she left, find no explanation of the mysterious rocks, hear nothing of Ruth’s reaction or thoughts.

A plot climax without an attendant climax in character development or theme. And a frustrating plot climax at that because it doesn’t bring a satisfactory explanation (maybe because there isn’t one? not that there isn’t in the world, but because Richler hadn’t imagined what that could be?).

And so I wanted to like *The Impostor Bride* - it had all the elements of Can Lit that I adore: historical fiction, strong female protagonists, World War Two, family drama. And yet, it’s not a book I’d ever take on a second date: far too awkward for the effort.(less)

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Dec 21, 2012 Sheila rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lily Azerov, a young Jewish woman steps off the train in Montreal during the post WWII era to meet her impending fiancee. But when Sol, the man she is to meet and marry, looks at her, he changes his mind. Several days later, Sol's brother meets her and proposes instead. At Nanthan's and Lily's wedding, an uninvited guest, Ida Pearl sees her and realizes she is not Lily Azerov, Ida's cousin as she claims to be. The story continues reverting back to Lily's life in Europe during the war years and t...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Doreen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: personal-library

After the end of World War II, Lily Azerov arrives in Montreal to marry Sol Kramer, the marriage having been arranged by a matchmaker. Sol rejects his bride-to-be, but his brother Nathan steps in. Three months after the birth of their daughter Ruth, Lily abandons her husband and daughter. Ruth is raised by her father and a loving and protective extended family, but when gifts of rocks occasionally arrive from her mother, Ruth’s curiosity is peaked. Gradually she gathers bits and pieces of inform...more After the end of World War II, Lily Azerov arrives in Montreal to marry Sol Kramer, the marriage having been arranged by a matchmaker. Sol rejects his bride-to-be, but his brother Nathan steps in. Three months after the birth of their daughter Ruth, Lily abandons her husband and daughter. Ruth is raised by her father and a loving and protective extended family, but when gifts of rocks occasionally arrive from her mother, Ruth’s curiosity is peaked. Gradually she gathers bits and pieces of information about her long-lost parent.

The book is a daughter’s quest to uncover the truth about her mother. She soon discovers that Lily Azerov was not really her mother’s name; that was simply an identity she had stolen after the war. Ruth is told by an older relative that “’It wasn’t uncommon, after all, for a person to change her name if she had escaped death. It’s not a custom here, I know, but where we were from, if you recovered from a serious illness or escaped death in some way, it wasn’t thought to be a bad idea to change your name. To confuse death – you understand’” (289)?

Ruth’s attempts to unearth the truth about her mother points to a major theme of the novel: the need humans have to unearth the truths hidden in their past, even in the traumas of the past which occurred long before their existence. Ruth’s aunt speaks of this need: “’Our need to know where we come from, to connect it to who we are and where we’re going. That’s what makes us human, what sets us apart from all the other animals. . . . It’s origins and destiny – our obsession with that. That’s what defines us’” (234).

Another theme is the long-lasting psychological impact of war on successive generations. Lily is described as shattered and Ruth thinks of a teacup, “a white porcelain cup . . . that had shattered once from a fall . . . had been carefully repaired, but was too fragile now for the rigours of holding tea . . . . My mother was like that teacup, I had come to think. She could not withstand the rigours of the life she was trying to live” (123). She is not the only one damaged by war. Bella, Ruth’s paternal grandmother, and Ida Pearl, her uncle’s mother-in-law, suffered devastating loss and must learn how to survive.

Of course, some people have more difficulty than others with dealing with loss and moving on. Ida Pearl tells Ruth, “’We rely on our surroundings and the people who know us to remind us who we are. You think that who you are is written in stone and that if you were to be torn from your world and lung into another you’d land there the same Ruth Kramer you’ve always been. But you wouldn’t, believe me. I didn’t. Your grandmother didn’t. Your grandfather didn’t . . . ‘” (290). Ruth speculates that her mother lost “her very sense of self because the world that had formed and reflected that self back to her was destroyed” (290). Ruth, however, adapts rather too easily to her mother’s abandonment.

Another problem I had with the book is the use of chance and coincidence. What are the chances that a woman Lily meets in Montreal would be related to the woman whose identity Lily stole in Europe? Is it logical that in one extended family there would be five people who are abandoned by either a spouse or a parent?

This book was shortlisted for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, but I’m not surprised it didn’t win. It is sufficiently interesting, but theme development depended too much on plot manipulation.
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Nov 26, 2012 Rosanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

The summary of The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler intrigued me enough to want to read it. It surpassed my expectations.

Lily arrives in Montreal just after World War II. It has been arranged that she would travel to Montreal from Palestine to meet and marry Sol Kramer. Upon her arrival at the train station, Sol has a change of mind and abandons her there. It is Nathan, Sol’s brother, who takes pity on his brother’s rejected bride and marries her instead. Lily’s traveling papers identify her as L...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Steven Langdon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: super

This fine novel, set mostly in Montreal (with segments from Poland and from Thunder Bay,) is another on the short list for the 2012 Giller Prize in Canada. Unlike the other three novels on the list, this is a quiet and textured exploration of family interaction -- less dramatic and expansive than "Ru," or "419" or "Inside." "The Imposter Bride" is a reflective and introspective probing of the impact on a young woman of her mother's unexplained desertion shortly after her birth. There is a quiet...more This fine novel, set mostly in Montreal (with segments from Poland and from Thunder Bay,) is another on the short list for the 2012 Giller Prize in Canada. Unlike the other three novels on the list, this is a quiet and textured exploration of family interaction -- less dramatic and expansive than "Ru," or "419" or "Inside." "The Imposter Bride" is a reflective and introspective probing of the impact on a young woman of her mother's unexplained desertion shortly after her birth. There is a quiet depth and sensitivity to the writing, and a focus on time and place that makes this novel at once commonplace yet powerful.

A Polish woman who calls herself Lily Azerov comes to Montreal after World War Two, marries into a family in the close-knit Jewish community there, gradually tries to escape from her war-time nightmares, and has a child, Ruth -- an all too common story in the post-Holocaust world. Then suddenly, stepping out to buy a bottle of milk, she departs, leaving her husband a note of apology. Why has she gone? How has this come to pass? And what are the results for her daughter and the family she leaves? This could be a drama, a story of suspense and danger -- yet Richler does something more interesting than that. She presents instead a careful dissection of how Ruth over the years grapples with what seems a profound rejection that turns her life toward a conformist effort to find affirmation in a conventional life. Ruth's story, in turn, gradually becomes the vehicle by which the enigma of Lily is ultimately unfolded -- and Lily's story comes to be seen in many respects as the antithesis of Ruth's. Lily's life, it becomes clear, is one of passion, of defying the odds, of survival despite immense dangers -- an unconventional life that she could not, it turned out, carry forward in the close family confines in Montreal.

What are the implications of this juxtaposition of the two lives of mother and daughter? For me, that's a fascinating question. What does Ruth make of the life that Lily in the end reveals to her? How does Lily feel about the much safer world that Ruth has built for herself?

With her skills and sensitivity, I wanted to see Richler confront these questions. But she does not. She writes her story, and she writes it well. But Ruth remains a character with depths that remain unexplored. There is a tension suggested with her husband, but this is not pursued in the book. Lily, too, remains an unfinished character for me -- never really addressing the reality of her daughter despite the insight we develop into why she left Montreal.

It is, of course, easy to say that I wanted another 100 pages in a book already 350 pages long. But Nancy Richler has written this novel so well, she conveys such sensitivity and understanding of family, that I feel justified in demanding more -- even while recognizing how much this author has given us in this excellent book.(less)

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May 03, 2012 Canadian Reader rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the engrossing and highly readable story of "Lily Azerov" who has fled Eastern Europe after the turmoil and horror of the Second World War. In Palestine, she makes arrangements to marry a Canadian Jew, Sol Kramer, who, on sight intimates the damage behind her calm demeanor. Sol quickly and shamefully decides not to marry Lily, but his brother Nathan does. Ida Krakauer and her teenaged daughter, Elka, show up at Nathan and Lily's wedding uninvited. Ida has heard from her sister Sonya in T...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Tammy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was an intriguing novel. Lily has come over from Europe after the war to marry a man she has never met. Sol takes one look and decides not to marry her but his brother nathan does marry her. It describes what she does going back and forth between her at this time and remembering how she came to be there as Lily and her daughter Ruthie and how she is after her Mom leaves. Lily leaves when Ruthie is a baby and no one hears from her so growing up Ruthie is curious about her at different times...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Heidi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ww2, read-in-2012, courtesy-of-publisher, arc

The Imposter Bride is a wonderfully insightful book about war, loss, displacement and new beginnings, and the impact of these on the individual and their families.

After fleeing the chaos of post-war Europe, Lily Azarov arrives in Montreal to begin her new life as a mail-order bride to Sol Kramer in order to secure an entry permit into Canada. However, on seeing the sad young woman at the railway station, Sol gets cold feet and opts out of the arrangement – instead his brother Nathan, attracted b...more The Imposter Bride is a wonderfully insightful book about war, loss, displacement and new beginnings, and the impact of these on the individual and their families.

After fleeing the chaos of post-war Europe, Lily Azarov arrives in Montreal to begin her new life as a mail-order bride to Sol Kramer in order to secure an entry permit into Canada. However, on seeing the sad young woman at the railway station, Sol gets cold feet and opts out of the arrangement – instead his brother Nathan, attracted by Lily’s beauty and aura of mystery, marries the young refugee. From the very beginning it is clear to Nathan that his young bride carries a heavy burden of loss and grief from the unmentionable things she has had to endure during the war, and that she may not be the person she claims to be. But he is infinitely patient with her and hopes that the birth of their daughter Ruth will make Lily feel more settled and at home in her new country. However, when Ruth is three months old, Lily leaves the house to buy some milk and never returns.

Young Ruth grows up motherless but much loved by her father, grandmother, uncle Sol and Sol’s wife Elka,, who welcomes Ruth into their home and becomes Ruth’s mother substitute. Ruth knows very little about her mother, and doesn’t miss her.

“I didn’t miss her, had never missed her. I would not have known what to miss. Her absence was more a background to my life than anything else. It was a given, a stable fact of life that was definitional, not dynamic, like the hole in the centre of a bagel, without which a bagel would be something else …..”

On her sixth birthday, Ruth receives a parcel from her mother, containing a pretty quartz and a short impersonal postcard. Over the next decades Ruth gradually sets out to find out more about the mother she has never known, and who is surrounded by a shroud of mystery. Little by little some of Lily’s true identity is revealed, and her connection to the other women in Ruth’s life.

I have a weakness for books set during WWII and dealing with the subject of the holocaust. Several novels I have read in the past have addressed the issue of displacement, emigration and new beginnings, but none as perceptive as Richler’s novel. With great insight and subtlety she explores the impact of Lily’s traumatic past on her own life in a new country, as well as those around her. Emerging from unspeakable suffering and loss, and having left her very identity behind in order to start a new life, Lily is like a piece of driftwood, unable to forge emotional connections to people around her. Isolated by the experiences nobody else around her has shared or can fathom, her new life is not the haven Lily has hoped for, but casts her into isolation and lethargy. When she is confronted by her past, she does the only thing left open to her – she runs.

For Ruth, her mother is a shadowy figure who has never featured in her life, and who she does not miss. Yet the absence of her mother and the mystery surrounding her affect Ruth in very subtle ways, which prompt her to ask questions about the woman who abandoned her as a small baby. Over decades, Lily’s absence colours the relationships between all the strong and independent women in Ruth’s life ever so slightly – her grandmother Bella, Aunt Elka, Aunt Elka’s mother Ida and aunt Nina. But safe in the folds of her extended family it takes Ruth many years to want to find her mother, and reclaim the legacy of the past. Slowly all the loose ends come together as Lily’s past and true identity are revealed.

I really loved reading this book, and would have welcomed more detail about Lily’s experiences during the war, which knit the storyline together and explain some of the mystery surrounding her. The emotional journey it took me on was very intense – sometimes sad, always interesting, and certainly opening my eyes to the powerful influence trauma has on future generations. Having lost my mother as a child, I found it hard to reconcile Ruth’s passive acceptance with the pain I experienced from my mother’s absence, but found Richler’s explanations plausible and well documented.

A book highly recommended to anyone interested in the legacy of the holocaust, displacement and new beginnings – or simply about mother-daughter relationships impacted by trauma and loss.

PS: if I could have changed anything about this book it would have been the title, which I feel does not do it justice - had it not been recommended to me, I may never have picked it up.
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Mar 25, 2013 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

This should have been a five star read. The story was stellar. During WWII a woman comes across a dead girl and steals her documents and becomes her. She then goes to Canada to marry only to be left at the train station by her intended, Sol. Sol's brother ends up marrying her. She has a daughter, Ruth, and after 3 months goes out for milk and never comes home. Most of the story is told via flashback of the woman who became Lily and the family she married into. The present day chapters mostly con...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Cheryl rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian, fiction, literary, literature, historical-fiction

This is another of the shortlisted books for this year's Giller Prize. The bride in question is a Jewish woman who has fled Europe in WW2, and has eventually arrived in Montreal, to take part in an arranged marriage. As soon as her betrothed lays eyes on her, he rejects her, to his everlasting regret, because his brother steps in and does what needs to be done. But Lily Azerov is not who she claims to be, and soon after her daughter is born, she abandons her family. This story is told from multi...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: canlit

I read this mostly because it was shortlisted for the Giller prize, and I try to make a habit of reading the five nominees before the winner is announced.

There was so much I enjoyed about this book, but it somehow lacked the punch I would have expected from a prize finalist. Perhaps it's just my own expectations, but it felt like I was reading a book from twenty years ago rather than a 21st century novel. Perhaps it's just having somebody with the last name of Richler writing about the Jewish co...more I read this mostly because it was shortlisted for the Giller prize, and I try to make a habit of reading the five nominees before the winner is announced.

There was so much I enjoyed about this book, but it somehow lacked the punch I would have expected from a prize finalist. Perhaps it's just my own expectations, but it felt like I was reading a book from twenty years ago rather than a 21st century novel. Perhaps it's just having somebody with the last name of Richler writing about the Jewish community in postwar Montreal (Mordecai is apparently the author's second cousin). But there were also many times where it seemed like the author wanted to write with modern sensibilities, yet constrained herself at the last moment.

As one example, there were a few places like where everything seemed to point toward some revelation of a minor character being homosexual. I was actually skimming the lines at points to get to the foregone conclusion, so certain was I of the fact. Yet it never materialized. It's not something I was actively seeking, or wanting to read into the book. The set-up was honestly just begging for the answer, and things seemed to fall flat when it was nothing so scandalous (not to mention obvious). When homosexuality is finally brought up, it is so after the fact, irrelevant and not even hinted at that the reveal was anticlimactic and meaningless.

I was also jarred by the transitions in the book. Often I had to temporally reorient myself at the beginning of a chapter as no dates were given to the reader. This was especially difficult when a chapter began or ended with a journal excerpt rather than a dateable story element. There was also a fair amount of midstream character flipping, where the narration went suddenly to another person's point of view without any warning.

The themes, however, were profound and meaningful. Even something as simple as a name became a larger issue of what names mean, the tradition of naming in Jewish culture, why the name of G-d is not spoken, and how all the begats and begots in scripture point to the human need to discover our origins. On this account, the accolades are a no-brainer. As for the rest, it always seemed like something was being held back, and I wish it would have taken more chances with the narrative to deliver a knockout rather than a series of pulled punches.(less)

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Feb 11, 2013 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I picked up this book, I was really afraid that it would be similar to that awful book, "The Reliable Wife". My cousins, (you know who you are!) will understand what I am talking about. Something about the cover made me think of Reliable Wife. However, it turned out to be nothing like that awful story and I quite enjoyed this read.

Lily Azerov arrives in Canada from Isreal, planning to marry a man she has not yet met. This man, upon seeing her at the train station, rejects her. His brother N...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Ineke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

De "Oorlogsbruid" van Nancy Richter begint net na de WO11. Een jonge vrouw Lily Azarov komt aan op het station in Montreal. Daar zou haar verloofde (die ze nog nooit gezien had) haar afhalen. Sol Kramer (de verloofde) ziet Lily uit de trein stappen, en bedenkt zich.

Nathan Kramer maakt zijn verontschuldiging voor het gedrag van zijn broer. Krijgt medelijden en besluit zelf met Lily te trouwen. Snel wordt duidelijk dat Lily niet degene is voor wie ze zich uitgeeft. Er hangt een waas van geheimzinn...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Arlene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nancy Richler's paternal grandmother immigrated to Canada expecting to marry upon her arrival. When she disembarked, however, the prospective groom rejected her. Richler's grandmother's story inspired The Imposter Bride.

A woman travelling under the name Lily Azerov arrives in Canada. At the train station she watches as the people around her meet loved ones and then disappear into the city of Montreal. One by one the travellers dissipate until Lily stands alone. Her husband-to-be has seen her, a...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Elizabeth Moeller rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have read lots of novels about people experiencing the Holocaust and WW II. However, this is the first novel I have read that addresses the emptiness that comes from having lived through that kind of pervasive fear and death and how a person can forge a life after.
The story is about two women, Lilly and her daughter Ruthie and how they deal with the physical and psychic losses that have occurred in their lives.
I really enjoyed the way that the author was able to inhabit the heads of many dif...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: can-lit, fiction, giller, historical-fiction, favourites

The Imposter Bride defied my expectations. From the book blurb, what appealed to me as a reader was the mystery emerging from World War II Poland: Who is Lily Azerov?I had thought this story would show a daughter involved in a long search for her mother over various countries, continents, and in exotic locales.

Instead, the novel is firmly rooted in Canada and is more the story of the daughter, Ruth, growing up in post-war Jewish Montreal than the concerns of Lily the mother. The question, “Who...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm a sucker for WWI/WWII period novels, especially those that deal with the psychological trauma, and there's definitely a hint of that in this book. I'm also a sucker for missing mothers and other family mysteries, especially when it's the son or daughter who takes up the mantle of discovery. This book delivered on that. It was a light, fun read, considering the time period its set in, and the fact that its characters were primarily Jewish immigrants from Poland gave the history a different se...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Andrea Heidebrecht rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book, in my mind, started out worthy of four stars but slowly lost them as I got further and further into the story. The main problem I had with this book is that the central issue - Ruth's curiosity about the reason her mother abandoned her as an infant - is built up throughout the novel, but in the end the reason is not all that interesting. In fact, Ruth's mother herself often says things like, "I can't even tell you why I did that" or "I can't even tell you why I felt that way, I just d...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Pam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Pam by: anita lebeau

Shelves: neiba, 2013

I really enjoyed The Imposter Bride. The story is unique and is revealed to the reader slowly and in such a way that keeps the reader engaged and curious. I couldn't wait to see how the story would play out. The author cleverly unfolds the truth of the imposter bride in such a way that the reader learns the truth along with the main character. I found that very clever and effective. 4 stars- I really liked it.

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Feb 01, 2013 AliceinWonderland rated it 2 of 5 stars

- Was OK...premise sounded interesting, but I found the storyline drags a lot and nothing really happens, and characters don't really change much, except perhaps Ruth as she grows up. But I did not find her coming-of-age particularly interesting...regular growing up stuff...
- The explanation of Lily's secret with the butcher and how it related to the real Lily was rather anti-climatic by the time it was revealed. I found I had no reaction to it whatsoever. And indifference is not usually a favou...more

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About Nancy Richler

Nancy Richler is a Canadian novelist. Born in Montreal, Quebec in 1957, she spent much of her adult life and career in Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to Montreal in the early 2010s.

Richler published her first novel, Throwaway Angels, in 1996. The novel was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her 2003 novel Your Mouth Is Lovely won the 2003 Canadian Jewish Book...more

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