The Gratitude Cradle

The Gratitude Cradle is the moving account of a search for understanding from Rhona Beck. 'What stories do we pass on to our children? Even those we would rather forget…'

Chaim is nearing the end of a life indelibly scarred by his experiences in the Holocaust death camps, but transfigured by his capacity to forgive and to love. He is challenged by his close friend Anne to leave behind him a distillation of his wisdom as a legacy for his great-grandchildren. As he begins this final stanza of his life, we explore the complexities of the family of which they're both a part. His former son-in-law, the ebullient Rupert, once married to Anne, is now remarried to the socially-ambitious Jeanette. His granddaughter Elizabeth, who's escaped anti-Semitism in Europe for the cradle of Africa, has married a black man, Andile, and given birth to Adam and Sizwe, the children of a new age of innocence and trust. But perhaps his most significant connection is with Judith, Jeanette's daughter, who despite her mother's sharply articulated objections, has forged a friendship with the old man… The moving account of a search for meaning.

The Gratitude Cradle artfully weaves these disparate threads together into a compelling account of some of the most urgent moral and political issues of the day. Tragedy is the backdrop against which the story unfolds - but it is grave and the transfiguring power of love that ultimately prevails. A novel of ideas, it is a gripping family saga that explores the stories we tell our children, whether consciously or despite ourselves, and the moving power of love against all the odds. Part of the story of the Jews, it is a tale of religion, philosophy and politics, as well as wisdom and misunderstanding. Praise for R Barnett Beck's previous book, The Glass House - 'an unusual, deeply felt and moving novel.' Diana Athill