Rhonda 's Reviews > Hush

This is a truly heart-rending story of a young girl living in a Chassidic Jewish community in New York who witnesses the molestation of her best friend at the hands of her friend's older brother. Gittel didn't understand what was happening, couldn't protect her friend, and when her friend, Devory, commits suicide, she is told to forget about her and everything that happened.

Told in alternating narratives from Gittel as a 9 year old and then as a young adult graduating high school and getting married, we see how the experience has haunted her and continues to affect her until she finally speaks out. Again and again and again until people finally start listening, believing, and acting on what she says.

Based on her own experiences, the author (who writes under the pseudonym Eishes Chayil) has shed light on an issue that has been so hushed up and ignored for so long in her community.

Highly recommend.