Sunday 2 October 2016

Invisible City

Finished September 29
Invisible City by Julia Dahl, read by Andi Arndt

This novel is the first novel in a series. Here Rebekah Roberts has moved to New York City from Florida to start her career as a journalist after getting her degree. Her perseverance has got her a position as a stringer for the Tribune, covering whatever story she is assigned. But when a story involving the body of a Hasidic woman falls to her, she feels a personal link. Rebekah's mother was Hasidic, from New York City, and rebelled from that life enough to meet Rebekah's father and have her. But she ran back to her Hasidic life when Rebekah was just six months old. Rebekah has always had conflicting feelings about this abandonment. She wants to understand, but she also resents her mother.
When someone that knew her mother offers inside information on the case, Rebekah doesn't stop to think about why she is being offered this information. Her personal feelings cloud her reporter instincts about looking at the motivation and actions of others.
As she follows the information from the scrapyard whether the body of Rivka was found, to the insular Hasidic community in Brooklyn where Rivka lived, to the Coney Island house where Rivka explored her questions about her religion with others, Rebekah learns about the special treatment the community has received from authorities, and the way this insular attitude puts the community itself at risk.
This is a story of Rebekah's personal questions, but also of a community not often visible in the larger world. A very interesting new series.

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