Read Then Sings My Soul Online
Authors: Amy K. Sorrells
Tags: #Genocide, #Social Justice, #Ukraine, #Dementia, #Ageism, #Gerontology
Then Sings My Soul (20 page)
⦠a little more â¦
When a delightful concert comes to an end,
the orchestra might offer an encore.
When a fine meal comes to an end,
it's always nice to savor a bit of dessert.
When a great story comes to an end,
we think you may want to linger.
And so, we offer ...
AfterWordsâ
just a little something more after you
have finished a David C Cook novel.
We invite you to stay awhile in the story.
Thanks for reading!
Turn the page for ...
⢠Book Club Questions
⢠The Inspiration Behind the Story
⢠Notes
⢠About the Title and Cover
⢠About the Author
⢠Suggested for Further Reading
⢠Acknowledgments
BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS
1. In this story, we are privy to an overview of Jakob's nearly century-long life. In what ways did Jakob change or not change over the decades? What things prevented or contributed to his ability to change?
2. Nel, on the other hand, was less than half a century old and received the benefits of a safe upbringing. In what ways did she change after going home to South Haven? In what ways did she stay the same? What were the contributing factors to these changes (if any)?
3. Many Americans find themselves part of the “sandwich generation,” caring for aging parents while at the same time trying to care for their own children. Are you able to identify with Nel's struggles to understand and care for her father of deteriorating health? In what ways?
4. Nearly twice as many Jews as were killed in the Holocaustâsome estimates are as high as eleven millionâwere massacred in Eastern Europe and especially Ukraine in the decades leading up to World War II. How do you think the pogroms did or did not eventually contribute to the Holocaust?
5. As the group ISIS invaded the Middle East in the summer of 2014, heinous reports emerged about the genocide of Christians. Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Cambodia are other regions where people groups have been targeted over the last century for genocide based on their ethnicity, religion, or both. How has society learnedâor not learnedâfrom history as it relates to the advancement or prevention of genocide?
6. Which character in this novel do you identify with most? Why?
7. Many references were made to Jewish traditions throughout Jakob and Peter's escape to America. Did any of these traditions resonate with New Testament teachings and practices?
8. How do you see the promises of the Old Testament reflected in Jakob and Peter's journey? Do you think Jakob saw evidence of these promises by the end of the story? Why or why not?
9. Nel was so preoccupied with her own busyness that she didn't fully realize the decline in her parents' health. Share a time when your own preoccupations prevented you from being as “present” as you wish you had been.
10. Mattie was a lifelong family friend. How did her own life story help Nel and Jakob?
11. The metaphor of how rocks and minerals are discovered and shaped runs throughout the story. How have you seen this process unfold in your own life? Can you think of another hobby or tangible process that parallels the way God works in our lives? If so, share it with the group.
12. Think of an event in historyâyour own, your ancestors', or humanity'sâthat you've learned from.
13. Nel eventually became more open to a relationship with David. What factors contributed to these changes in her?
14. Read Isaiah 43:18 and Deuteronomy 4:9. Compare and contrast what God says about memories in these verses. Are there other scriptures that you have turned to when faced with guilt and shame or the fear that God has abandoned you?
15. Read Psalm 13. Describe the differences in the author's thoughts between the first and last stanzas. What does this tell you about how we can talk with God?
16. This novel begins with a quote from Charles Spurgeon about “Jehovah-Shammah.” How has this novel impacted your beliefâor disbeliefâin the characteristics of this name (one of many) for Yahweh?
THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE STORY
Ritual allows those who cannot will themselves out of the secular to perform the spiritual, as dancing allows the tongue-tied man a ceremony of love.
Andre Dubus, “A Father's Story”
Three important parts of my life inspired this story, the first of which is an organization called Mission to Ukraine (
www.missiontoukraine.org
). Through our interest in and support of Mission to Ukraine, in 2009 my family began to sponsorâand fall in love withâa boy in Ukraine named Peter Predchuk. As we learned through blog posts of friends who live near and travel to Zhytomyr, Peter was like many thirteen-year-old boysâhappy, funny, tenderhearted, and kind. He loved cars and he liked to sing. But Peter was different too. Abandoned by his mother because she could not care for him and his degenerative muscular dystrophy, he was alone, filthy, and regularly beaten in an orphanage. He was losing hope and growing weaker by the day. But God had special plans for Peter. He was rescued and adopted by a man named Yuri Levchenko (who has nine biological children and a tenth on the way as of this writing). Peter was deeply treasured and loved until he passed away July 1, 2014. Peter was a hero to many, and I had the privilege of finally meeting him in January 2013, in what has been proven to be one of the most pivotal moments of my life.
The second inspiration for this story was my paternal grandfather, Joseph Kossack, a savant hobby lapidarist who died at the ripe young age of ninety-four, a month shy of his ninety-fifth birthday. Up until a month before he died, he was vibrant. He lived in his own apartment, enjoyed life with his friends and neighbors, told the same stories over and over again, and yes, he still drove a car. I discovered through genealogy research that his grandparentsâmy paternal great-great-grandparentsâwere Jewish immigrants who escaped to the United States from Eastern Europeâmost likely near the edge of Ukraine near Belarus, from what I can tell from my researchâduring the first waves of pogroms in the Pale of Settlement that occurred in the 1880s. This is where his last name (and my maiden name), Kossack (a variation of “Cossack”), originated. The story goes that my great-great-grandfather's true last name was too difficult for the Ellis Island intake administrator to figure out how to spell, so they assigned him a new one: Kossack.
Learning of my significant Jewish heritage compounded my adoration for the plight of the people of Ukraine, and I was compelled to write a story that not only reflects the deep pain and struggles within the region, but also the ways in which Yahweh is with us throughout all of our sojourns: Jehovah-Shammah. Indeed, there is no place where we can flee from His glorious love, grace, and presence (Psalm 139).
In addition to writing from a Jewish perspective, for some time I have wanted to incorporate the work of a lapidarist into a novel. All my life, my grandfather brought his shiny rock and mineral creations with him on his visits to our home. The brilliant gemstones and cabochonsâas well as his lengthy stories of what each stone was made of and where he found it, and the details of gemstone conventions he attendedâmesmerized me. The metaphor of a rough and unsightly rock or mineral being faceted and polished into something beautiful, and how Yahweh does the same thing with us is one that never grows old or cliché to me.
The third inspiration for this story was my work as a registered nurse on a busy medical unit where I currently care for aging patients every week. I see how families struggle with end-of-life care decisions, and how exhausting and discouraging the process can be for everyone involved. When an elderly person suffers a fall as the protagonist, Jakob, did in this story, that often sets off a cascade of difficult decisions and recovery processes. But this season of life is not without hopeâfar from it. While some of the elderly patients I care for have succumbed completely to dementia and Alzheimer's disease, a good number of them have minds still as sharp as yours and mine. They love to tell stories about their youth, how they met and courted their spouses, the war years, you name it. They love to tell stories about their
lives
. And we are wise to listen.
For more information about some of the unique themes and background inspiration for
Then Sings My Soul
, visit:
www.AmySorrells.wordpress.com/Then-Sings-My-Soul
NOTES
Prologue
1
. Small Jewish towns or villages formerly found in Eastern Europe.
2
. “The Pale of Settlement ⦠was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited. It extended from the eastern pale, or demarcation line, to the western Russian border with the Kingdom of Prussia (later the German Empire) and with Austria-Hungary.⦠It included much of present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Ukraine, and parts of western Russia.⦠Jews were [also] excluded from residency at a number of cities within the Pale, while a limited number of categories of Jews were allowed to live outside it. With its large Catholic and Jewish populations, the Pale was acquired by the Russian Empire (which was majority Russian Orthodox) in a series of military conquests and diplomatic maneuvers between 1791 and 1835, and lasted until the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.⦠Because of the harsh conditions of day-to-day life in the Pale, some 2 million Jews emigrated from there between 1881 and 1914, mainly to the United States” (Wikipedia, s.v. “Pale of Settlement,” last modified September 17, 2014,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement
).
3
. Traditional Ukrainian fur coat.
Chapter 3
1
. “Holodomor Facts and History,” Holodomorct.org, accessed September 20, 2014,
www.holodomorct.org/history.html
.
Chapter 8
1
. Ecclesiastes 1:18.
Chapter 9
1
. Fringe tassels tied to a small cloak worn under a shirt.
2
. A stylus used to achieve the design on the painted wooden eggs.
3
. Traditional colored eggs of Ukraine, made by some Jewish children for Passover and Orthodox families for Easter.
Chapter 13
Chapter 21
1
. Luke 12:7
NKJV
.
Chapter 24
1
. Traditional Jewish prayer said during times of mourning.
Chapter 27
Chapter 30
1
. Small cloak worn under a shirt and on which the fringe tassels called
tzitzit
are tied.