Exodus, Revisited: My Unorthodox Journey to Berlin

Feldman’s story might be already well-known to readers; her previous memoir was the basis of the Netflix series Unorthodox. Her newest book is equally riveting. There are two main themes. The first is Feldman’s search across Europe for the roots of her beloved grandmother’s life history; a journey which takes her to Hungary, Germany, and Sweden. The second is her love affair and eventual resettlement in Berlin from New York. Feldman has a gift for making prose poems of small events, such as searching for ancestral data in a Swedish village or meeting people in a Berlin café. Not only is the book beautifully written, but it deals with some of the most profound human emotions: longing to know one’s origins; anger at injustice; and romantic and parental love. Feldman’s analytic mind is particularly keen here, as when she details the complex emotions she experienced while watching the trial of a Nazi in a German court.