Departures

About the Book

       In early l9th Century Europe, Paris is the center of culture and thought, and Vienna the heart of music, dance and flirtation. Romania, part of the Ottoman Empire, is a mysterious land of draculas, vampires, superstitions and curses. It struggles with Russia, is governed by corrupt Greeks, and sustained by Jewish merchants, peasants and enslaved Gypsies.  It is the home of Iacob Abelescu, the youngest brother of a Jewish family engaged in curing and purveying pelts.

       Abelescu temporarily leaves Romania to visit a cousin, one of Vienna's salon Jews.   He travels on to Paris, where he meets Jeannette Ballin, the well-educated daughter of a successful furrier. In love with a young Sephardic Jew, Jeannette is compelled by her father to accept Iacob Abelescu as her husband.  More suited to wine, women and coffee-houses, he first brings her to Vienna, then home to Romania.

       Departures is a portrait of early l9th century Jews in Romania, France and Vienna, and the saga of a family divided by distance, of friends united by love.  It is also a story of the nature of love, and the first of a series of related novels spanning two centuries.

About the Author

Miriam Striezheff Lewis was born in Chicago. While her vocation was in the field of law, writing served as an alternate occupation. Upon her marriage to Jac Lewis, a fashion and costume designer, she made New York City her home. In l982 she and her husband settled in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where they collaborated in writing Costume: The Performing Partner. Her heritage and travel throughout Eastern and Western Europe led to Departures, the first of a series of related novels spanning two centuries.