Overview

To everyone who knows her, 28-year-old Marcia Gold leads the perfect life. A high school guidance counselor in 1980 Brooklyn, New York who specializes in helping pregnant teens, Marcia thrives in her work. She also has a handsome, successful boyfriend who has won the approval of her Jewish, Holocaust-survivor family - no easy feat. However, beneath the shiny surface lurks another reality. Plagued by frightening and debilitating panic attacks brought on by her family's wartime legacy and exacerbated by the Iranian hostage crisis in the news, Marcia becomes convinced that ""demons"" are occupying her closet and her mind. Determined to keep her terrifying secret life a secret, Marcia is pushed closer and closer to a breaking point.A series of crises finally forces the explosion Marcia can no longer contain. Desperate to rid herself of her ""demons,"" she concocts a plan, hoping to be reborn as a new person. Unfortunately, she discovers that her plan creates its own problems. Can she find another path out of her psychic pain, one that will lead her to true normalcy?

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Reviews

In this sensitive, probing, achingly passionate novel, Ruth Rotkowitz leads us into the haunted world of Marcia Gold, a child of Holocaust survivors at a breaking point in her all-too-American life. On the surface, 28-year-old Marcia succeeds beautifully. She is a gifted high school guidance counselor devoted to helping pregnant teens, and she has the perfect boyfriend for a nice Jewish girl. But just below, everything is wrong. Marcia struggles with mysterious panic attacks she confides to no one; she believes that demons have secreted themselves into her Brooklyn apartment; she roils over the naive girls she desperately wants to save; she obsesses over the Iranian hostage crisis that is rocking 1980 America. And when her private torment finally explodes, Marcia flees everything, her job, her lover, her home, only to discover that she cannot flee from herself and the traumatic legacy of her family's past. A Jewish story, a woman's story, a universal story about our struggle to defeat the demons - both human and imagined - that dare us to fight for our survival, our sanity, our humanity. - Andrew R. Heinz, author of Jews and the American Soul Rotkowitz deftly address the theme of inherited trauma, artfully telling the moving story of a young woman who takes on the burden of her parents' Holocaust nightmares. While her parents survived the Holocaust and established a new life with their three American-born children, their middle child is haunted by the tragic experiences they had faced before her birth. This fast-paced book examines topics of family, love, and self-preservation. A remarkable first novel. - Sheryl Bronkesh, President, Phoenix Holocaust Association It's hard to believe this riveting new novel about a young woman's struggle with her own inner demons is the author's debut. That's how well Ruth Rotkowitz has created a protagonist whose desperate quest to escape the whale is often as dangerous and compelling as Ahab's quest to find it. - Michael Zam, author and co-creator of Feud: Bette and Joan A beautifully written account of a young woman grappling with the emotional upheaval often associated with children of Holocaust survivors. Set against the backdrop of the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1981, the author deftly takes us into the mind of this high school guidance counselor as she struggles with trauma at her job and in her personal relationships with family and friends. You'll want to cheer Marcia on her journey! - Helen Locke, Education Committee, Phoenix Holocaust Association Readers looking for a novel with psychological insight will enjoy Escaping the Whale by Ruth Rotkowitz. We never know what goes on under the veneer people present to the world. In the novel, protagonist Marcia Gold deals with anxiety and delusions while presenting a 'normal' face to the world. Forced to deal with a series of crises, Marcia struggles to fight her demons while keeping up an outside appearance of competence. All this takes place amidst the shadow cast by Marcia's parents' Holocaust experience and the Iranian hostage crisis permeating the news. A good read! - Maxine Cooper, psychotherapist ... Rotkowitz brilliantly demonstrates that the historical period forty years ago was a warm-up to the challenges we face now. Imagine being a young woman raised by parents traumatized by their escape from the Nazis, trying to lead the perfect life as the perfect daughter, while the entire country tensely waits for the resolution of the Iran hostage crisis. How do you take the risks needed to set yourself free from your loved ones' debilitating trauma? - Pamela Burke, PhD., social psychologist and N.J. Council of the Arts Fellowship Recipient for Fiction

"In this sensitive, probing, achingly passionate novel, Ruth Rotkowitz leads us into the haunted world of Marcia Gold, a child of Holocaust survivors at a breaking point in her all-too-American life. On the surface, 28-year-old Marcia succeeds beautifully. She is a gifted high school guidance counselor devoted to helping pregnant teens, and she has the perfect boyfriend for a ""nice Jewish girl."" But just below, everything is wrong. Marcia struggles with mysterious panic attacks she confides to no one; she believes that demons have secreted themselves into her Brooklyn apartment; she roils over the naïve girls she desperately wants to save; she obsesses over the Iranian hostage crisis that is rocking 1980 America. And when her private torment finally explodes, Marcia flees everything, her job, her lover, her home, only to discover that she cannot flee from herself and the traumatic legacy of her family's past. A Jewish story, a woman's story, a universal story about our struggle to defeat the demons - both human and imagined - that dare us to fight for our survival, our sanity, our humanity. - Andrew R. Heinz, author of Jews and the American Soul Rotkowitz deftly address the theme of inherited trauma, artfully telling the moving story of a young woman who takes on the burden of her parents' Holocaust nightmares. While her parents survived the Holocaust and established a new life with their three American-born children, their middle child is haunted by the tragic experiences they had faced before her birth. This fast-paced book examines topics of family, love, and self-preservation. A remarkable first novel. - Sheryl Bronkesh, President, Phoenix Holocaust Association It's hard to believe this riveting new novel about a young woman's struggle with her own inner demons is the author's debut. That's how well Ruth Rotkowitz has created a protagonist whose desperate quest to ""escape the whale"" is often as dangerous and compelling as Ahab's quest to find it. - Michael Zam, author and co-creator of Feud: Bette and Joan A beautifully written account of a young woman grappling with the emotional upheaval often associated with children of Holocaust survivors. Set against the backdrop of the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1981, the author deftly takes us into the mind of this high school guidance counselor as she struggles with trauma at her job and in her personal relationships with family and friends. You'll want to cheer Marcia on her journey! - Helen Locke, Education Committee, Phoenix Holocaust Association Readers looking for a novel with psychological insight will enjoy Escaping the Whale by Ruth Rotkowitz. We never know what goes on under the veneer people present to the world. In the novel, protagonist Marcia Gold deals with anxiety and delusions while presenting a 'normal' face to the world. Forced to deal with a series of crises, Marcia struggles to fight her demons while keeping up an outside appearance of competence. All this takes place amidst the shadow cast by Marcia's parents' Holocaust experience and the Iranian hostage crisis permeating the news. A good read! - Maxine Cooper, psychotherapist ... Rotkowitz brilliantly demonstrates that the historical period forty years ago was a warm-up to the challenges we face now. Imagine being a young woman raised by parents traumatized by their escape from the Nazis, trying to lead the perfect life as the perfect daughter, while the entire country tensely waits for the resolution of the Iran hostage crisis. How do you take the risks needed to set yourself free from your loved ones' debilitating trauma? - Pamela Burke, PhD., social psychologist and N.J. Council of the Arts Fellowship Recipient for Fiction"

Author Information

Ruth Rotkowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1949 to Jewish Holocaust survivors who fled Vienna, Austria when Hitler came to power. This legacy has informed her research and her writing. Ruth earned a B.A. and M.A. in English and has taught on both the college and high school levels, in New York and New Jersey. As a freelance writer, she has published fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in anthologies and literary journals. She has also served as a staff writer and member of the editorial board of the (now defunct) Woman's Newspaper of Princeton, where her feature articles garnered numerous awards. She and her husband moved to Arizona in 2009, and Ruth became involved with the Phoenix Holocaust Association. In her volunteer work for this organization, she gives book talks in the Phoenix area, including for the adult education program at Arizona State University, on Holocaust-related books. Her debut novel, ESCAPING THE WHALE, has been released April 11, 2020. Featuring a protagonist who must deal with her own painful family legacy along with the frightening news involving the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-1980, the novel follows her struggle to be ""normal"" and present as normal in her job and love life. At some point, she will have to realize that she cannot continue with her act. Ruth believes the novel will appeal to lovers of literature, history, and psychology, as well as lovers of an old-fashioned growing-up story!

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