“[An] enthralling portrait of a woman daring to defy convention in the face of rigid social confines…filled with thought-provoking turns that explore timely subjects in a gripping light...its themes linger long after the final page is read.”—USA Today
With echoes of Rules of Civility and The Boston Girl, a compelling and thought-provoking novel set in postwar New York City, about two women—one Jewish, one a WASP—and the wholly unexpected consequences of their meeting.
One rainy morning in June, two years after the end of World War II, a minor traffic accident brings together Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Their encounter seems fated: Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar graduate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult thirteen-year-old daughter Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a private tutor.
Though she feels out of place in the Bellamys’ rarefied and elegant Park Avenue milieu, Eleanor forms an instant bond with Margaux. Soon the idealistic young woman is filling the bright young girl’s mind with Shakespeare and Latin. Though her mother, a hat maker with a little shop on Second Avenue, disapproves, Eleanor takes pride in her work, even if she must use the name "Moss" to enter the Bellamys’ restricted doorman building each morning, and feels that Patricia’s husband, Wynn, may have a problem with her being Jewish.
Invited to keep Margaux company at the Bellamys’ country home in a small town in Connecticut, Eleanor meets Patricia’s unreliable, bohemian brother, Tom, recently returned from Europe. The spark between Eleanor and Tom is instant and intense. Flushed with new romance and increasingly attached to her young pupil, Eleanor begins to feel more comfortable with Patricia and much of the world she inhabits. As the summer wears on, the two women’s friendship grows—until one hot summer evening, a line is crossed, and both Eleanor and Patricia will have to make important decisions—choices that will reverberate through their lives.
Gripping and vividly told, Not Our Kind illuminates the lives of two women on the cusp of change—and asks how much our pasts can and should define our futures.
A captivating novel, set in postwar New York City, about two women from different worlds and the wholly unexpected consequences of their meeting
One rainy morning, two years after the end of World War II, a minor traffic accident fatefully brings together Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar graduate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult thirteen-year-old daughter, Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a private tutor at their Park Avenue home.
Eleanor’s mother, a hatmaker with a shop on Second Avenue, disapproves of the arrangement; the Bellamys live in a restricted building where Eleanor will have to conceal the fact that she’s Jewish. But Eleanor, who has formed an immediate bond with Margaux, loves her new position despite her mother’s misgivings.
Soon after Eleanor arrives at the Bellamys’ country home in Connecticut, she meets Patricia’s charming bohemian brother, Tom, recently returned from the war. The spark between Eleanor and Tom is instant and intense, and Eleanor begins to feel more comfortable in their world, undeterred by the fact that she’s an outsider. Then one hot summer evening a line is crossed, and Eleanor will have to make a decision with consequences for all of their lives.
Gripping and vividly told, Not Our Kind looks at two women on the cusp of change — and asks how much our identities can and should define us.
