New Canadian author makes cookies for guests at the launch of her book at Burlington`s Different Drummer.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  April 21, 2012  It was her first book reading.  She was in Burlington at the Different Drummer to celebrate the launch of her first novel; Rachel’s Secret.  The small room at the Drummer was packed with at least a third of the audience made up of people who knew the author but that didn’t deter them from buying books.  Many, many people bought three and four copies of Rachel’s Secret by Shelley Sanders.

Shelley Sanders wait for a book buyer to say what she wants the inscription inside Rachel's Secret to say.

Sanders began her presentation with a short visual presentation about the background of the time period the book was written about which made the point she wanted to make.  She then stood there looking at her audience and they sat and looked back – this went on for a few minutes and then Sanders moved abruptly and said:  Oh, I`m supposed to read from my book now” and began her reading which went just fine.

New Canadian author Shelley Sanders signs books at Different Drummer launch.

Missing her cue made the occasion just that much more real and pleasurable.  The book will sell well enough and one should expect to see a second title from this author.

The event had a nice home spun feel to it.  The refreshments were made by the author and she explained in some detail what was in each, and one expected her to say that she would pass along the recipe if you wanted it.

Set in pre-revolutionary Russia, where tensions are high between the Jewish and Christian populations. Rachel, who is a Jew, and Sergei, a Christian, find their worlds torn apart by violence as lies about Jews leap off the pages of the local newspaper. Vicious riots break out on Easter Sunday, 1903, and when they finally end, almost three days later, Rachel finds that the person she loves most is dead and that her home has been destroyed. As she struggles to survive the aftermath of the riots—or pogroms—support comes from someone totally unexpected, as Sergei turns against his father to help Rachel. With everything against them, the two young people don’t want to fight the bond that is growing between them, one of the few signs of goodness and hope in a time of chaos and violence.

The basics of the story are factual; there is some novelization needed to ensure this wasn’t just a history book.  The editor of the newspaper in the town of Kishinev continually published brutally damaging headlines that built the tension in the community around the murder of a young man is a true and terrible example of the lies that drove much of the anti-Semitic literature that was behind the Nazi ideology.  On that level alone the book is a good example for young readers of what vicious propaganda can do to a society.

It was THE best selling book at the Different Drummer Saturday afternoon when Shelley Sanders launched the book.

The grandmother, the story is built around, was Shelley Sanders’ grandmother which is what inspired the author.  Her grandmother`s horrific experience may have been what more than 100 years later launched a new Canadian writer.

Ian Elliot, proprietor of A Different Drummer is using the launch of Rachel`s Secret at his book store as the first step in the creation of a Teen Book Club.

The Kirkus review, a literary publication librarians rely upon for reviews of new titles had this to say about the title: “Sanders’ debut has generic prose and occasional anachronisms, but nonetheless adeptly conveys the history, from Mikhail Rybachenko’s real name to the bitter bigotry and bloodbath”, which is not bad for the first effort by a new Canadian novelist.

 

 

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