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The History of Soul 2065
Months before World War I breaks out, two young Jewish girls just on the edge of adolescence—one from a bustling Russian city, the other from a German estate—meet in an eerie, magical forest glade. They are immediately drawn to one another and swear an oath to meet again. Though war and an ocean will separate the two for the rest of their lives, the promise that they made to each other continues through the intertwined lives of their descendants.
This epic tale of the supernatural follows their families from the turn of the 20th Century through the terrors of the Holocaust and ultimately to the wonders of a future they never could have imagined. THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 encompasses accounts of sorcery, ghosts, time travel, virtual reality, alien contact, and elemental confrontations between good and evil. Understated and epic, cathartic and bittersweet, the twenty connected stories in Nebula Award finalist Barbara Krasnoff’s debut form a mosaic narrative even greater than its finely crafted parts.
Jane Yolen, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master, says in her introduction: “If you, like me, love quirky and original fantasy stories, I advise you to dive right in. If you, like me, admire tough writing that’s not afraid of the grit, dive right in. If you, like me, want to hang out a while with characters rich in their own traditions, dive right in. This is storytelling at the top of the heap.”
With cover art and design and interior illustrations by Paula Arwen Owen.
Praise for THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065
“Intriguing stories from the world of Humperdink and Sholem Aleichem, that return us to a time when a world that is achingly familiar and wonderfully strange is coming into being among the Jewish children, beginning the imaginary journey of marvels forth and back between then and today.”
—Samuel R. Delany, Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of ATLANTIS: THREE TALES, DHALGREN, and the RETURN TO NEVÈRŸON series
“If David Mitchell plotted a speculative novel-in-stories that then Alice Munro wrote, you might get something approaching the ambition and beauty of Krasnoff’s THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065. Krasnoff creates a world so excessively alive, both with woe and human kindness, that history can’t contain them, and thus, they leak into haunted, uncanny realms. Told in prose so unassuming you might suspect irony, what you get is here the exact opposite of irony: hard-won empathy, though hidden beneath protective layers of wit and circumspection. That’s why Krasnoff’s stories retell themselves in our minds long after they’re finished. Like gentle ghosts that don’t know they’re dead and don’t realize they’re terrifying us, they just want to keep on having a nice chat with the reader. Forever.”
—Carlos Hernandez, author of SAL AND GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE
“Like all good mosaic novels, THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 rewards its readers with both a beguiling narrative arc and a succession of individually riveting stories—in this case, twenty cannily uncanny tales involving ghosts, gods, demons, dybbuks, magic jewels, and time-bending birds. With its echoes of Tony Kushner’s ANGELS IN AMERICA and Jonathan Lethem’s DISSIDENT GARDENS, Barbara Krasnoff’s multigenerational, phantasmagoric saga kept me turning the pages at a rapid pace.”
—James Morrow, World Fantasy and Nebula Award–winning author of GALÁPAGOS REGAINED
“There’s a lot of heart in Barbara Krasnoff’s collection, THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065—the warmth of home, the lies of families, the demons that lurk in trees, myths both great and small. It tells the fantastic history of two families, their journey through time, what they kept and what they lost. Plunge into THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065, there’s nothing like it.”
—Jeffrey Ford, World Fantasy and Nebula Award–winning author of AHAB’S RETURN: OR, THE LAST VOYAGE
“Barbara Krasnoff’s great gift is for manifesting the invisible: immigrants and outcasts, the queer, the bereaved, elderly, children, ghosts. And, ah! The ghosts! The ghosts in THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 arrive from both the past and the future to interact, and interfere, with each other and the living. Timelines tangle, bloodlines mingle, the mundane becomes magical. There is horror here, bitter droughts of hopelessness and gall, but each sip is offered with such a spirit of camaraderie and solidarity that sharing in it makes the aftertaste linger long and sweetly. The more I read this book, the more deeply I was impressed. Yes, impressed: in the sense of being indelibly marked by Krasnoff’s stories. I’ve been—ever so gently—cicatrized.”
—C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award–winning author of BONE SWANS: STORIES
“As a writer of mosaic novels—short stories that connect to tell a larger one—I admire the craft, humor, and emotional storytelling that Ms. Krasnoff brings to her work. Each of her stories, starting with two small European girls meeting in a woodsy park, has its own particular moment while connecting to ...
This epic tale of the supernatural follows their families from the turn of the 20th Century through the terrors of the Holocaust and ultimately to the wonders of a future they never could have imagined. THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 encompasses accounts of sorcery, ghosts, time travel, virtual reality, alien contact, and elemental confrontations between good and evil. Understated and epic, cathartic and bittersweet, the twenty connected stories in Nebula Award finalist Barbara Krasnoff’s debut form a mosaic narrative even greater than its finely crafted parts.
Jane Yolen, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master, says in her introduction: “If you, like me, love quirky and original fantasy stories, I advise you to dive right in. If you, like me, admire tough writing that’s not afraid of the grit, dive right in. If you, like me, want to hang out a while with characters rich in their own traditions, dive right in. This is storytelling at the top of the heap.”
With cover art and design and interior illustrations by Paula Arwen Owen.
Praise for THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065
“Intriguing stories from the world of Humperdink and Sholem Aleichem, that return us to a time when a world that is achingly familiar and wonderfully strange is coming into being among the Jewish children, beginning the imaginary journey of marvels forth and back between then and today.”
—Samuel R. Delany, Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of ATLANTIS: THREE TALES, DHALGREN, and the RETURN TO NEVÈRŸON series
“If David Mitchell plotted a speculative novel-in-stories that then Alice Munro wrote, you might get something approaching the ambition and beauty of Krasnoff’s THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065. Krasnoff creates a world so excessively alive, both with woe and human kindness, that history can’t contain them, and thus, they leak into haunted, uncanny realms. Told in prose so unassuming you might suspect irony, what you get is here the exact opposite of irony: hard-won empathy, though hidden beneath protective layers of wit and circumspection. That’s why Krasnoff’s stories retell themselves in our minds long after they’re finished. Like gentle ghosts that don’t know they’re dead and don’t realize they’re terrifying us, they just want to keep on having a nice chat with the reader. Forever.”
—Carlos Hernandez, author of SAL AND GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE
“Like all good mosaic novels, THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 rewards its readers with both a beguiling narrative arc and a succession of individually riveting stories—in this case, twenty cannily uncanny tales involving ghosts, gods, demons, dybbuks, magic jewels, and time-bending birds. With its echoes of Tony Kushner’s ANGELS IN AMERICA and Jonathan Lethem’s DISSIDENT GARDENS, Barbara Krasnoff’s multigenerational, phantasmagoric saga kept me turning the pages at a rapid pace.”
—James Morrow, World Fantasy and Nebula Award–winning author of GALÁPAGOS REGAINED
“There’s a lot of heart in Barbara Krasnoff’s collection, THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065—the warmth of home, the lies of families, the demons that lurk in trees, myths both great and small. It tells the fantastic history of two families, their journey through time, what they kept and what they lost. Plunge into THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065, there’s nothing like it.”
—Jeffrey Ford, World Fantasy and Nebula Award–winning author of AHAB’S RETURN: OR, THE LAST VOYAGE
“Barbara Krasnoff’s great gift is for manifesting the invisible: immigrants and outcasts, the queer, the bereaved, elderly, children, ghosts. And, ah! The ghosts! The ghosts in THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 arrive from both the past and the future to interact, and interfere, with each other and the living. Timelines tangle, bloodlines mingle, the mundane becomes magical. There is horror here, bitter droughts of hopelessness and gall, but each sip is offered with such a spirit of camaraderie and solidarity that sharing in it makes the aftertaste linger long and sweetly. The more I read this book, the more deeply I was impressed. Yes, impressed: in the sense of being indelibly marked by Krasnoff’s stories. I’ve been—ever so gently—cicatrized.”
—C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award–winning author of BONE SWANS: STORIES
“As a writer of mosaic novels—short stories that connect to tell a larger one—I admire the craft, humor, and emotional storytelling that Ms. Krasnoff brings to her work. Each of her stories, starting with two small European girls meeting in a woodsy park, has its own particular moment while connecting to ...
269 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 11, 2019
57 people are currently reading
631 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Krasnoff
40 books22 followersBarbara Krasnoff has published short stories in Crossed Genres, Electric Velocipede, Space and Time, Apex Magazine, Doorways, Escape Velocity, Sybil's Garage, Behind the Wainscot, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Amazing, Weird Tales, and Descant. She's contributed to the anthologies Clockwork Phoenix 2, Such A Pretty Face: Tales of Power & Abundance, and Memories and Visions: Women's Fantasy and Science Fiction. She also published the nonfiction Robots: Reel to Real, which was supposed to head up a young adult series of books called How It Works -- but the publisher was eaten by a larger publisher.
When Barbara isn't making a living as Features & Reviews Editor for Computerworld.com, she's hanging out with the NYC writers group Tabula Rasa or in Brooklyn, NY with her partner Jim Freund.
When Barbara isn't making a living as Features & Reviews Editor for Computerworld.com, she's hanging out with the NYC writers group Tabula Rasa or in Brooklyn, NY with her partner Jim Freund.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
January 12, 2024
I’m going to be super lame, and open this review with a quote from another author. To quote Neil Gaiman, “The real problem with stories – if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.”
This is what is termed a “mosaic novel,” a series of vignettes that form a complete story when taken all together. It starts shortly before World War I, with two little Jewish girls: Chana from the Russian Empire, Sophia from the German Empire. Despite living hundreds of miles apart, they manage - somehow, no explanation is ever even hinted at - to wander into the same forest clearing. They very quickly become best friends, in the way that only small children can, and vow to try to find their way back to the clearing every year.
Sophia and Chana never meet again. But their families do, again and again over the generations, never realizing the history they share. And that’s where we get our vignettes: snapshots of the lives of the descendants of Sophia and Chana, frequently featuring appearances (sometimes cameos, sometimes substantial ones) where their descendants touch each other's lives. These vignettes are shaped by events like two world wars, the labor movement, the Holocaust, the AIDS epidemic, and (when the stories start reaching into the future) climate change and environmental collapse.
These stories tend to vary between bittersweet and intensely sad. End of life (whether from the perspective of the person dying, or their loved ones left behind) is a frequent theme - hence the Gaiman quote above. The traditional Jewish blessing said when someone dies - zikhrono livrakha, “may their memory be a blessing” - is a common theme.
Another deep theme in this is the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, “repairing the world.” Tikkun olam has many connotations, the most common of which today is a call to actions of social justice. But it has a more mystical connotation as well: the notion that the divine light of God was shattered during Creation, and it’s up to people to bring these separated sparks of goodness together to restore the world to Paradise. A different spin on the same idea: there are only so many souls in creation, and loving connections are two parts of the same soul finding each other. This is both subtext woven throughout and something explicitly discussed, as well as referenced in the title (when some descendants of both Sophia and Chana are talking about tikkun olam at a Passover seder, and one of them jokes, “what, is everyone at this table Soul Number 2065 or something?”).
An excellent, and powerful, journey. Have tissues, a fuzzy blanket, a cup of cocoa, and a puppy on standby. There’ll be some ugly crying.
My blog
This is what is termed a “mosaic novel,” a series of vignettes that form a complete story when taken all together. It starts shortly before World War I, with two little Jewish girls: Chana from the Russian Empire, Sophia from the German Empire. Despite living hundreds of miles apart, they manage - somehow, no explanation is ever even hinted at - to wander into the same forest clearing. They very quickly become best friends, in the way that only small children can, and vow to try to find their way back to the clearing every year.
Sophia and Chana never meet again. But their families do, again and again over the generations, never realizing the history they share. And that’s where we get our vignettes: snapshots of the lives of the descendants of Sophia and Chana, frequently featuring appearances (sometimes cameos, sometimes substantial ones) where their descendants touch each other's lives. These vignettes are shaped by events like two world wars, the labor movement, the Holocaust, the AIDS epidemic, and (when the stories start reaching into the future) climate change and environmental collapse.
These stories tend to vary between bittersweet and intensely sad. End of life (whether from the perspective of the person dying, or their loved ones left behind) is a frequent theme - hence the Gaiman quote above. The traditional Jewish blessing said when someone dies - zikhrono livrakha, “may their memory be a blessing” - is a common theme.
Another deep theme in this is the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, “repairing the world.” Tikkun olam has many connotations, the most common of which today is a call to actions of social justice. But it has a more mystical connotation as well: the notion that the divine light of God was shattered during Creation, and it’s up to people to bring these separated sparks of goodness together to restore the world to Paradise. A different spin on the same idea: there are only so many souls in creation, and loving connections are two parts of the same soul finding each other. This is both subtext woven throughout and something explicitly discussed, as well as referenced in the title (when some descendants of both Sophia and Chana are talking about tikkun olam at a Passover seder, and one of them jokes, “what, is everyone at this table Soul Number 2065 or something?”).
An excellent, and powerful, journey. Have tissues, a fuzzy blanket, a cup of cocoa, and a puppy on standby. There’ll be some ugly crying.
My blog
April 26, 2019
A beautifully written book that links together history and fiction, people and stories, past and present. I love how it focuses on "ordinary" lives (that aren't ever quite as ordinary as we might believe) and the quiet, subtle magic that runs through the world.
Krasnoff's stories mix an earthy sense of realism with delicate strands of fantasy, the weird, the strange, and even science fiction, and lets us know that there are ghosts and witches at work in the everyday world we all walk through. Following a family through many years, it shows how lives intersect and divert, how people can be connected through time and space, and how we all matter in ways that we don't always understand ourselves.
Krasnoff's stories mix an earthy sense of realism with delicate strands of fantasy, the weird, the strange, and even science fiction, and lets us know that there are ghosts and witches at work in the everyday world we all walk through. Following a family through many years, it shows how lives intersect and divert, how people can be connected through time and space, and how we all matter in ways that we don't always understand ourselves.
June 9, 2019
You can read the full review on my blog, The Writerly Way, here.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mythic Delirium Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
This year, I’ve really been about reading books in new formats, and this is one that snatched my attention: a series of interconnected short stories that builds on a single premise. I tend to read extremely linear books, so the fact that this didn’t actually have an overarching plot was something that I thought would be novel, even though I wasn’t sure how I would like it. The verdict: I loved it.
The first important fact: the 2065 in the title is not a year. Reading comprehension skills are important, kids. Since I don’t possess these, I went in thinking it was “The History of Soul … 2065.” False. It’s all one thing. It’s “The History of Soul 2065.” That’s a very big distinction. And I’m glad, because what I thought was sort of lame, and the way the author took it was much more enjoyable and rewarding to read.
The History of Soul 2065 has a little bit of everything, from ghosts to witches to the afterlife to grief, and everything in between. There’s a pervasive eerie supernatural atmosphere in a lot of stories that was easy to get caught up in, and it always kept me guessing.
As with all short story collections, there were some I liked more than others. There were only a couple that I just didn’t care for at all, and with a collection this large, that’s pretty impressive, in my opinion.
My Thoughts:
- The family trees so kindly provided in the front of the book are not recommendations. Read them. They’re sort of required. Don’t be like me. I’m the awful sort of person who skips superfluous content in the beginning of the book to get right to the story. I ended up having to go back to read the family trees in the front of the book, and when I did, everything fell into place. Imagine that, yeah? The whole premise of the book is that these two little girls meet in a magical clearing, and while they promise to meet again, life has other plans in store for them, the way it does. But their promise is fulfilled, little by little, through the actions of their family, and it goes down the line until the two families eventually meet again, several generations later. So it’s important to know these two trees if you’re really going to understand all the wonderful Easter eggs Krasnoff drops from one story to the next.
- I’m the super nerdy sort of reader who loves looking for Easter eggs in stories, and man did this book ever deliver on that. I mean, it’s really a series of short stories, so I guess they had to be connected somehow, right? Sometimes it can feel random, jumping from one story to the next, but there’s always little details that ground it in previous stories. Even though the story might be about one character, others are name dropped or brought in as secondary characters, and while we may not get to learn a whole lot about a character all at once, it builds up to a very clear picture of a host of endearing characters and how they effect each other’s lives.
- There is a little of everything in these stories—I laughed and cried and pondered life and death and fell in love with the characters over and over again. There were just so dang many moments where the hairs on my arm raised because the writing hit just the right chord, whether it was a supernatural moment that caught me off-guard with its eeriness or just a situation that was so poignant and relatable that it gave me chills. Emotions are hard work, yo, and this had me all over the board. It wasn’t all negative and heartache, but I felt like even the lighter moments hit me just right and really endeared me to the characters. The situations they go through are things many of us have experienced, with just a bit of supernatural sprinkled on top.
- The writing is just beautiful. It walks the line between eerie, thoughtful, emotional, and just easy reading. Once I started a story, I wanted to finish it (with few exceptions). The way they unfold, it always felt like there was a little twist or something to be discovered along the way, which made even the more mundane stories exciting, because I knew there’d be a payoff in the end and there almost always was. The thing I was probably most impressed about with the writing was just how creative it was, with so many large concepts tackled succinctly and subtly, while still with an appropriate depth to do them justice.
- There is no one overarching plot that carries this book, so if that’s what you’re in it for, choose something else. This is very much a character-driven story. Each short story can stand on its own, but when they’re taken in tandem with all the others, it really brings a new life to each piece. The backdrop of all the other stories in the collection makes each new story mean just that little more, precisely because of all the Easter eggs and little ways that the stories are connected.
Sticking Points:
- As I said, there were some short stories that were complete misses for me (which is to be expected from a collection). I felt like they went a bit too far from believability, considering the magical realism setting in the rest of the stories. I loved the magical realism and the fantasy elements that were slightly outside of ordinary life: the women who made things happen almost magically, the haunting of spirits, the afterlife, magical items, etc. These elements were obviously fantasy, but the way they were broached was like a hint at the unknown, rather than so in-your-face about it. The tone was a little bit different, though, with a story where someone uses magic to body swap, or one that involved aliens, or similar stories. This really comes down to personal preference, but I prefer the subtle supernatural elements, the things that make you consider if something like that could really happen, rather than the more out there fantasy elements.
- The friendship of the two girls in the beginning, Chana and Sophia, is overstated. They only meet once and promise to return and meet again, but that’s about it. Yet, during the story, the big focus is on the “friendship” of these girls, which feels like a bit of a stretch. There may have been an immediate connection, a sort of kinship, but I don’t think meeting someone for an hour or less constitutes as a friendship. Since this is the big founding premise of the stories, it was a bit disappointing. I would’ve liked to see them meet more than once in their secret glade and actually have a running friendship going before they find they can no longer return due to life.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mythic Delirium Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
This year, I’ve really been about reading books in new formats, and this is one that snatched my attention: a series of interconnected short stories that builds on a single premise. I tend to read extremely linear books, so the fact that this didn’t actually have an overarching plot was something that I thought would be novel, even though I wasn’t sure how I would like it. The verdict: I loved it.
The first important fact: the 2065 in the title is not a year. Reading comprehension skills are important, kids. Since I don’t possess these, I went in thinking it was “The History of Soul … 2065.” False. It’s all one thing. It’s “The History of Soul 2065.” That’s a very big distinction. And I’m glad, because what I thought was sort of lame, and the way the author took it was much more enjoyable and rewarding to read.
The History of Soul 2065 has a little bit of everything, from ghosts to witches to the afterlife to grief, and everything in between. There’s a pervasive eerie supernatural atmosphere in a lot of stories that was easy to get caught up in, and it always kept me guessing.
As with all short story collections, there were some I liked more than others. There were only a couple that I just didn’t care for at all, and with a collection this large, that’s pretty impressive, in my opinion.
My Thoughts:
- The family trees so kindly provided in the front of the book are not recommendations. Read them. They’re sort of required. Don’t be like me. I’m the awful sort of person who skips superfluous content in the beginning of the book to get right to the story. I ended up having to go back to read the family trees in the front of the book, and when I did, everything fell into place. Imagine that, yeah? The whole premise of the book is that these two little girls meet in a magical clearing, and while they promise to meet again, life has other plans in store for them, the way it does. But their promise is fulfilled, little by little, through the actions of their family, and it goes down the line until the two families eventually meet again, several generations later. So it’s important to know these two trees if you’re really going to understand all the wonderful Easter eggs Krasnoff drops from one story to the next.
- I’m the super nerdy sort of reader who loves looking for Easter eggs in stories, and man did this book ever deliver on that. I mean, it’s really a series of short stories, so I guess they had to be connected somehow, right? Sometimes it can feel random, jumping from one story to the next, but there’s always little details that ground it in previous stories. Even though the story might be about one character, others are name dropped or brought in as secondary characters, and while we may not get to learn a whole lot about a character all at once, it builds up to a very clear picture of a host of endearing characters and how they effect each other’s lives.
- There is a little of everything in these stories—I laughed and cried and pondered life and death and fell in love with the characters over and over again. There were just so dang many moments where the hairs on my arm raised because the writing hit just the right chord, whether it was a supernatural moment that caught me off-guard with its eeriness or just a situation that was so poignant and relatable that it gave me chills. Emotions are hard work, yo, and this had me all over the board. It wasn’t all negative and heartache, but I felt like even the lighter moments hit me just right and really endeared me to the characters. The situations they go through are things many of us have experienced, with just a bit of supernatural sprinkled on top.
- The writing is just beautiful. It walks the line between eerie, thoughtful, emotional, and just easy reading. Once I started a story, I wanted to finish it (with few exceptions). The way they unfold, it always felt like there was a little twist or something to be discovered along the way, which made even the more mundane stories exciting, because I knew there’d be a payoff in the end and there almost always was. The thing I was probably most impressed about with the writing was just how creative it was, with so many large concepts tackled succinctly and subtly, while still with an appropriate depth to do them justice.
- There is no one overarching plot that carries this book, so if that’s what you’re in it for, choose something else. This is very much a character-driven story. Each short story can stand on its own, but when they’re taken in tandem with all the others, it really brings a new life to each piece. The backdrop of all the other stories in the collection makes each new story mean just that little more, precisely because of all the Easter eggs and little ways that the stories are connected.
Sticking Points:
- As I said, there were some short stories that were complete misses for me (which is to be expected from a collection). I felt like they went a bit too far from believability, considering the magical realism setting in the rest of the stories. I loved the magical realism and the fantasy elements that were slightly outside of ordinary life: the women who made things happen almost magically, the haunting of spirits, the afterlife, magical items, etc. These elements were obviously fantasy, but the way they were broached was like a hint at the unknown, rather than so in-your-face about it. The tone was a little bit different, though, with a story where someone uses magic to body swap, or one that involved aliens, or similar stories. This really comes down to personal preference, but I prefer the subtle supernatural elements, the things that make you consider if something like that could really happen, rather than the more out there fantasy elements.
- The friendship of the two girls in the beginning, Chana and Sophia, is overstated. They only meet once and promise to return and meet again, but that’s about it. Yet, during the story, the big focus is on the “friendship” of these girls, which feels like a bit of a stretch. There may have been an immediate connection, a sort of kinship, but I don’t think meeting someone for an hour or less constitutes as a friendship. Since this is the big founding premise of the stories, it was a bit disappointing. I would’ve liked to see them meet more than once in their secret glade and actually have a running friendship going before they find they can no longer return due to life.
June 30, 2019
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2019/0...
This novel is really a series of interconnected short stories, about two interconnected families, starting with the improbable meeting of two little Jewish girls in 1920 and following their descendants. There are fantastic elements and sci-fi elements, and some of it made me cheer and a lot of it made me cry. It’s suffused with Jewish folklore and history and I loved it. Weird but great. A.
This novel is really a series of interconnected short stories, about two interconnected families, starting with the improbable meeting of two little Jewish girls in 1920 and following their descendants. There are fantastic elements and sci-fi elements, and some of it made me cheer and a lot of it made me cry. It’s suffused with Jewish folklore and history and I loved it. Weird but great. A.
June 4, 2019
I need to write a more detailed review, but man is this book powerful and affecting. Not that I had any doubt, having read several of these stories in various anthologies/magazines over the past few years.
June 20, 2019
What a beautiful, wonderful book. I read this on Kindle, but now I want to buy it in paper, too. I want it on my bookshelf, waiting for the day my daughter is old enough to read it and goes looking for a book to break her heart and enrich her soul. In my opinion, this book is in and of itself an act of tikkun olam, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
July 26, 2019
The best kind of ghost stories are the ones when the ghosts don't know they're dead. Or the kind that realize we're all ghosts, depending on where the viewer in pinpointed in time. Barbara Krasnoff has been called "the Alice Munro of science fiction," and her stories are small, quiet, complex, creepy, perfect.
May 16, 2019
I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but the cover of The History of Soul 2065 was beyond my capacity to ignore. Once I eyed this baby on #netgalley, I had to request it. Then, when it appeared (amazingly), on my shelf, it jumped to the front of my stack of to be read books. Needless to say, I was immediately drawn into Barbara Krasnoff's historical fiction/ fantasy world, and I could not put the book down. Chanah Rivka Krasulka, 11 years old from Lviv Ukrania, meets Sophia Rokhl Stein, who lives a large estate in Germany, in a beautiful clearing, just beyond an enchanted forest, and they immediately connect, despite the fact they come from completely different backgrounds. They promise each other no matter what happens, they will someday meet again. The book is divided into two sections, Chanah's family and Sophia's family, and the sections are divided into "short stories" about Chanah's and Sophia's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. It is incredible to witness how the branches of these two families become intertwined, or, said differently, how each character becomes a part of a complete "mosaic". The book is a journey backwards and forward through time, a truly original creation! EXCELLENT READ! HIGHLY RECCOMMEND! Pub date June 11, 2019. Thank you #netgalley for the e-ARC #thehistoryofsoul2065 in return for my honest review.
September 20, 2019
This was...weird, but kinda great. Its been a minute since I read a book so physically engaging; I found myself frequently flipping pages, retracing my steps, referring back to the characters' family trees, looking at how all of the pieces fit together. Some of the individual stories were more interesting than others, and there were some I would have liked explored in some more depth, but overall I enjoyed this as a weird, magical retrospective on life, death, family and the interconnectedness of things.
July 29, 2019
I enjoyed reading the loosely connected stories in this volume more than I can say. This is the only book I've ever read where I felt as if the author had written something that I, specifically, would enjoy. How often have I given a book five stars? Almost never, but here, yes.
I just wish it had a different title. It sounds like a future retrospective of soul music, and it's not that at all.
I just wish it had a different title. It sounds like a future retrospective of soul music, and it's not that at all.
September 29, 2020
I liked this book so much. Vivid characters, all the feels. It really is a "mosaic novel."
June 29, 2019
It has been a while since I have put 5 stars on a book. This collection of interconnected stories was all about people being people. I don't want to give anything away, so please read and enjoy!
August 4, 2019
This book has such a beautiful mix of the funny and sad moments of life, and the way the stories intertwine with each other is such a pleasure to read.
July 14, 2019
First off: I received this as a Goodreads Giveaway in ebook format, so thank you to all responsible for getting it to me.
This book has been described as a mosaic novel and helpfully, there are family trees for the families of the two characters who are the originators of their family lines as relevant to the stories. Unfortunately, in ebook format, it's not as easy to go bank and forth to these trees when I want to refer to them (which may speak more to my lack of skill in fully using the features found in ebooks), so I perhaps wasn't as always appreciative of their precise relationships as I should have been.
But the stories themselves are wonderful and beautifully tie together at the end. Honestly, Jane Yolen's introduction says everything that I feel I want to express here, so I recommend reading her excellent and heartfelt introduction.
I will be keeping an eye out for Krasnoff's work and look forward to seeking out other stories that she's written.
This book has been described as a mosaic novel and helpfully, there are family trees for the families of the two characters who are the originators of their family lines as relevant to the stories. Unfortunately, in ebook format, it's not as easy to go bank and forth to these trees when I want to refer to them (which may speak more to my lack of skill in fully using the features found in ebooks), so I perhaps wasn't as always appreciative of their precise relationships as I should have been.
But the stories themselves are wonderful and beautifully tie together at the end. Honestly, Jane Yolen's introduction says everything that I feel I want to express here, so I recommend reading her excellent and heartfelt introduction.
I will be keeping an eye out for Krasnoff's work and look forward to seeking out other stories that she's written.
June 19, 2019
I received a copy of this Kindle book from First-Read in exchange for my review.
This book is a collection of interrelated stories - it begins with the story of two young girls meeting in a forest somewhere between Germany and Russia (Poland) in 1914 and concludes with the story The History of Soul 2065, which takes the reader to 2069 and unites the great-grandchildren with the two young girls.
I really enjoyed some of the stories, but there was just too much reliance on fantasy and magic for my taste. The Clearing in Autumn, where the two European girls Chana and Sophia meet in 1914, is a magical woods where two girls from different countries and different backgrounds meet. Sabbath Wine features two children, one Jewish and one black, who meet for Sabbath dinner with their fathers, but we learn of the tragedy of their magical meeting before the story ends. And Cancer God personifies disease and death.
And many of the stories deal with facing aging and death. The Loop, Cancer God, The Ladder-Back Chair, the Sad Old Lady, the History of Soul 2065, all deal with these themes. The collection is pretty somber and mournful. Even the light-hearted moments, in Cancer God, Under the Bay Court Tree, Time and the Parakeet, enhance the heartbreak of the whole.
An interesting collection, but not a recommended read if you don’t like fantasy or if you you are feeling melancholy.
This book is a collection of interrelated stories - it begins with the story of two young girls meeting in a forest somewhere between Germany and Russia (Poland) in 1914 and concludes with the story The History of Soul 2065, which takes the reader to 2069 and unites the great-grandchildren with the two young girls.
I really enjoyed some of the stories, but there was just too much reliance on fantasy and magic for my taste. The Clearing in Autumn, where the two European girls Chana and Sophia meet in 1914, is a magical woods where two girls from different countries and different backgrounds meet. Sabbath Wine features two children, one Jewish and one black, who meet for Sabbath dinner with their fathers, but we learn of the tragedy of their magical meeting before the story ends. And Cancer God personifies disease and death.
And many of the stories deal with facing aging and death. The Loop, Cancer God, The Ladder-Back Chair, the Sad Old Lady, the History of Soul 2065, all deal with these themes. The collection is pretty somber and mournful. Even the light-hearted moments, in Cancer God, Under the Bay Court Tree, Time and the Parakeet, enhance the heartbreak of the whole.
An interesting collection, but not a recommended read if you don’t like fantasy or if you you are feeling melancholy.
August 13, 2019
Beautiful interconnected collection of mystical and imaginative Judaic stories
I loved Barbara Krasnoff's The History of Soul 2065. Each story is like a precious gem, and it's hard to pick out which ones are the best. They each offer something special. I can remember reading or hearing many of them individually over the years, but it's wonderful to see how Barbara has interlinked them together to form a marvelous tapestry telling the stories of these families that have emigrated from Europe to America in the midst of the Holocaust, and how their dealings with ghosts, dybbuks and the supernatural shapes their succeeding generations. Just a breathtaking collection that's very moving and full of characters who will bring to mind your own relatives and friends and leave you in awe.
I loved Barbara Krasnoff's The History of Soul 2065. Each story is like a precious gem, and it's hard to pick out which ones are the best. They each offer something special. I can remember reading or hearing many of them individually over the years, but it's wonderful to see how Barbara has interlinked them together to form a marvelous tapestry telling the stories of these families that have emigrated from Europe to America in the midst of the Holocaust, and how their dealings with ghosts, dybbuks and the supernatural shapes their succeeding generations. Just a breathtaking collection that's very moving and full of characters who will bring to mind your own relatives and friends and leave you in awe.
September 2, 2019
This book is a series of linked short stories that form a gorgeous tapestry of the interwoven lives of two families. They range from competent to so heart-rendingly brilliant, they left me tearful and astonished. My hands-down favorite (also the favorite of Jane Yolen, who wrote the Introduction) was “Sabbath Wine.” That story alone was worth the price of the entire book. Beautiful, strange, ordinary, transformative. This collection marks Krasnoff as a writer to watch for.
March 3, 2020
Barbara Krasnoff's "The History of Soul 2065" isn't an easy book to classify – because it's a little bit of many things.
Technically, it's what's known as a "mosaic" collection: Short stories whose characters and lives intertwine, while each tale stands alone. But calling it a mosaic feels too two-dimensional. I like to think of it more as a a woven rug, in which the stories exist in the past, present and future, with characters long dead returning to play major roles, while offering glimpses into the future. The book's backdrop of Judaism and Jewish/20th Century history provides a consistent foundation to tell specific, detailed stories that are beautifully universal, about fathers, mothers, sons, aunts, uncles, spouses and the many unrelated loved ones we blend into our families.
Each story has a warm magical realist spirit within it, but don't let that fool you: Krasnoff is not afraid to take us into dark, frightening areas that can feel like falling off a cliff (at one point, she eliminates New York City with a sentence). Yet the reader always feels like she's in the passenger seat of a vehicle that's being driven by an assured expert, who knows her way through both dark and light. A personal highlight for me was "Cancer God," a story reminiscent of another magical realist great, Jonathan Carroll – quirky and darkly amusing, with visits from otherworldly creatures and a satisfying resolution.
Krasnoff's "History" may not be your own. But you'll recognize it, learn from it and wish you could have a few conversations (and wine) with its characters. Get a copy for yourself, and do a mitzvah for your loved ones – by picking up one for them, too!
Technically, it's what's known as a "mosaic" collection: Short stories whose characters and lives intertwine, while each tale stands alone. But calling it a mosaic feels too two-dimensional. I like to think of it more as a a woven rug, in which the stories exist in the past, present and future, with characters long dead returning to play major roles, while offering glimpses into the future. The book's backdrop of Judaism and Jewish/20th Century history provides a consistent foundation to tell specific, detailed stories that are beautifully universal, about fathers, mothers, sons, aunts, uncles, spouses and the many unrelated loved ones we blend into our families.
Each story has a warm magical realist spirit within it, but don't let that fool you: Krasnoff is not afraid to take us into dark, frightening areas that can feel like falling off a cliff (at one point, she eliminates New York City with a sentence). Yet the reader always feels like she's in the passenger seat of a vehicle that's being driven by an assured expert, who knows her way through both dark and light. A personal highlight for me was "Cancer God," a story reminiscent of another magical realist great, Jonathan Carroll – quirky and darkly amusing, with visits from otherworldly creatures and a satisfying resolution.
Krasnoff's "History" may not be your own. But you'll recognize it, learn from it and wish you could have a few conversations (and wine) with its characters. Get a copy for yourself, and do a mitzvah for your loved ones – by picking up one for them, too!
November 11, 2021
A charming fantasy story, The History of Soul 2065 kept me entertained until the very end. This is the first book I have read by its author and I look forward to reading more in the future.
Synopsis:
Months before World War I breaks out, two young Jewish girls just on the edge of adolescence—one from a bustling Russian city, the other from a German estate—meet in an eerie, magical forest glade. They are immediately drawn to one another and swear an oath to meet again. Though war and an ocean will separate the two for the rest of their lives, the promise that they made to each other continues through the intertwined lives of their descendants.
This epic tale of the supernatural follows their families from the turn of the 20th Century through the terrors of the Holocaust and ultimately to the wonders of a future they never could have imagined. THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 encompasses accounts of sorcery, ghosts, time travel, virtual reality, alien contact, and elemental confrontations between good and evil. Understated and epic, cathartic and bittersweet, the twenty connected stories in Nebula Award finalist Barbara Krasnoff’s debut form a mosaic narrative even greater than its finely crafted parts.
Synopsis:
Months before World War I breaks out, two young Jewish girls just on the edge of adolescence—one from a bustling Russian city, the other from a German estate—meet in an eerie, magical forest glade. They are immediately drawn to one another and swear an oath to meet again. Though war and an ocean will separate the two for the rest of their lives, the promise that they made to each other continues through the intertwined lives of their descendants.
This epic tale of the supernatural follows their families from the turn of the 20th Century through the terrors of the Holocaust and ultimately to the wonders of a future they never could have imagined. THE HISTORY OF SOUL 2065 encompasses accounts of sorcery, ghosts, time travel, virtual reality, alien contact, and elemental confrontations between good and evil. Understated and epic, cathartic and bittersweet, the twenty connected stories in Nebula Award finalist Barbara Krasnoff’s debut form a mosaic narrative even greater than its finely crafted parts.
July 8, 2019
3.5. Some of the stories I liked more than others (and there was definitely some repetition of themes/personal situations in ways that got a little tiring), but the stories I liked, I really liked, and I really liked following all the stories of two Ashkenazi families and their brief moments of inter-connectedness. (Also one of the families had a long, colorful history of Jewish radical collective action, which I Had Feelings about due to my own family history). This last thing isn't the author's fault so much, but I would have *killed* for this book to have been properly proofread - most of the stories were published as separate pieces over the course of many years and were only just now revised to fit together as one mosaic novel, and there are some details that don't add up (particularly concerning years of births in relation to other time settings that mathematically don't make sense), and it was *so* *aggravating*. And it's such a disservice to a lovely, touching book. (/end rant)
June 18, 2019
The book begins with a story set in the past in what seemed to be Germany or Poland. Two young Jewish girls meet in a forest and vow to return, but they never do. Instead, each meets a different fate. One remains in Europe with her family swept up by the Holocaust. The other immigrates with her family to the US. But over the decades their descendants become connected in often magical ways.
This is a book of connected short stories, the first half focusing on the family of Chana, one of the girls, and the second half on Sophia, the other girl. There is magic throughout that includes time travel, witchery, and lots of mysterious birds.
I love reading Jewish mystical and magical fiction, and I wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. The writing had little depth of feeling and I couldn't get engaged.
This is a book of connected short stories, the first half focusing on the family of Chana, one of the girls, and the second half on Sophia, the other girl. There is magic throughout that includes time travel, witchery, and lots of mysterious birds.
I love reading Jewish mystical and magical fiction, and I wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. The writing had little depth of feeling and I couldn't get engaged.
November 10, 2019
A SIMPLE MAN'S REVIEW:
This is more a collection of stories than a novel. Yes, they involve the same two families, but in many of the stories, it feels like the names were changed in older stories just to fit into this book. Don't get me wrong, some of the stories are great (and haunting), but the book doesn't feel like a single vision divided into short stories as much as an author playing with a common theme.
The last story and epilogue try to tie it all together, which cause them to feel very different than the other stories, and it's sort of a shame to end on that note. But I enjoyed the writing style and I haven't read much Jewish-based fantasy, so I'll look up this author for her other works.
Read it!
This is more a collection of stories than a novel. Yes, they involve the same two families, but in many of the stories, it feels like the names were changed in older stories just to fit into this book. Don't get me wrong, some of the stories are great (and haunting), but the book doesn't feel like a single vision divided into short stories as much as an author playing with a common theme.
The last story and epilogue try to tie it all together, which cause them to feel very different than the other stories, and it's sort of a shame to end on that note. But I enjoyed the writing style and I haven't read much Jewish-based fantasy, so I'll look up this author for her other works.
Read it!
September 4, 2023
This mosaic novel is mostly constructed from short stories that were published on their own. The author notes that some were modified to fit the overall story. One or two of the stories didn't fit as tightly as the others, but for the most part, this book had a flow from story to story as it explored the history of two families from generation to generation, including the trauma they experienced and passed down. There were definitely some overarching themes, especially related to death and how one lives ones life. The stories brought me to tears more than once. Krasnoff knows how to end a story with an emotional punch by picking just the right line, and she did it multiple times. This book isn't long, but it has a broad scope.
May 6, 2020
(Read in epub) Loved the book, though I was constantly confused (not really good at keeping track of names); perhaps a reread will allow me to follow things better. I enjoy the blend of fantasy and history, and the glimpses of the lives of secondary characters. (I also like that Krasnoff doesn't narrate the usual huge, dramatic events that are briefly mentioned, but lets us fill in the blanks.) I've always been fond of an episodic novel, and these short stories work together very well; I look forward to seeing what else Krasnoff writes.
July 13, 2022
This gorgeous set of interlocking stories follows two families as they navigate the 20th and 21st centuries, but this book is hardly a typical family saga. Each story is the literary equivalent of a gem, and together they form a tale with elements of magical realism, fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction. The stories celebrate humanity and cover entire arc of life, from cradle to grave, and beyond. Highly recommended.
September 9, 2019
Good collection of interconnected short stories about the descendants of two Jewish girls who meet in a forest, although they live in different countries. These stories encompass the term “magical realism” for me. Although the supernatural is present, each story feels like something that could really happen. I particularly enjoyed Sabbath Wine, Cancer God, and Time and the Parakeet.
September 18, 2021
This is a really beautiful book. It's shaped somewhat like a collection of short stories but the stories intertwine with each other, culminating in a very interesting ending. I read this as an e-book and that was it's one downfall, I found it difficult to keep track of the connections and my copy wasn't well designed for flipping back quickly to the family trees at the front.
Want to read
June 18, 2019Placeholder
I won this book via Goodreads Giveaways.
I won this book via Goodreads Giveaways.
October 3, 2019
A really good book. Has everything, sci fi,magic,love ,sorrow, mystery. And its all told in short stories!You need to add this to your list to read soon.
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