“Herein: two beginnings with nary an end.”

Two beginnings. You can start with “To” or you can start with “Fro.” Either end is a beginning. Two different stories that yet merge in vivid but elliptical ways. It's also beguiling and playful. I started with Fro (it was random). Now that I think of it, I’m speculating that most people will start with “To” because we are familiar with saying, “to and fro” and not “fro and to.” Either/or, To & Fro is a stunning book of narratives.

Annamae, in Fro, remains my best-loved character, this spunky, wily, and writerly young girl. I think she and her linguist mother enhanced or transcended the kabbalistic themes of Cohen’s story. That is, in Jewish culture (secular or not), letters and words aren’t simply letters and words (as we readers and reviewers can relate to, Jewish or not!). They are sacred, even the profane words.

Words have power, a holy meaning within, not just the definition, but Word. They have a life of their own. There’s a theory that the universe was created from the Hebrew alphabet, that letters are equivalent to atoms or molecules. You don't have to know a thing about Judaism to enjoy this book. I am giving this interpretation from my life experiences. However, Cohen penned this for all readers. You may observe other aspects, features, or analysis than I have done here. It's universal, her themes of maturing and evolving. And, in doing so, pondering the ways we reach out to our mirror selves.

Scholarly--or any readers--could make short shrift of my words, in trying to explain Cohen’s. But, since childhood, I have believed that letters and words have a mighty, colossal spiritual force. As I experienced the book, and the importance of words, letters, and books IN this book, I felt that To & Fro was a sort of “tikkun olam” --- Hebrew for repairing the brokenness of the world. There is a lot said about brokenness, as you shall see. “Who can say what’s beyond repair? They scare me, the broken bits, but I am curious about them, too.”

The ellipses of the Talmud---the debates by rabbis about the meaning of the Torah, comes to life here. There is even a rabbi in Cohen’s book, in the Fro story. She asked the right questions!

Annamae’s journal possesses an electric energy. She draws in it, too. What she includes is in the stars, the sky, the earth, the sea---everywhere. In her mind, her heart, her soul. She has a slice of mirror taped to the outside. Such an imaginary child. “One whole section was dedicated to the alphabet, page upon page where she recorded each letter and all its attributes: color, personality, age, hobbies, siblings, favorite food, gender. Some letters were very definitely girl or boy, some contained aspects of both, and some had no gender at all.”

“To” is also kabbalistic. It’s a Fool’s journey. A twelve-year-old girl, Ani, goes on a quest, walks far away and meets new people that live and experience life in ways she hadn’t known before. She was searching for the "Captain," who had cared for her for 5 years, and got off the path for him and onto a new one. She has with her a stolen kitten. Everyone in this book is learning, debating.

In the To side, I sw the overlaps in both stories. Some in words, some phrases, and certainly themes. Ani cannot initially read (this could have been a hundred years ago—Cohen did a superior job of not revealing the year, or referring to it, it could be ancient or contemporary). But she engages with a group that studies and debates the stories of our life. Talmudic meanings.

Cohen writes in clean, simple, but not reductive, prose. Don’t be deceived. Her themes and philosophies center on coming of age; individuals and communities interpreting the world around us; and translating the meaning of life—big themes done with sensitivity and precision. Even the ambiguities are meticulously portrayed. Cohen writes with care, with specificity of character. Her stories about storytelling are masterfully executed.

“I’m a breath held by a larger breath, held on a current of air, drifting around above this house…”

A big thank you to Bellevue for sending me an ARC for review. These are my own thoughts put into words.favorites prizeworthy39 s13 comments JillAuthor 2 books1,906

“I invent you and you invent me and I invent you and you invent me…”

A book that contains two mirrored narratives and can be begun from “To” or flipped over and start from “Fro”? A gimmick, I thought. No one can pull that off effectively.

Well, silly me. Not only does Leah Hager Cohen execute her concept well, but she also creates a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel that had me awestruck.

Head you win, tails you win. I began with Fro, which focuses on Annamae – one of the most original characters I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Annamae, a quixotic young girl, discovers early on that no one could really understand anybody and it’s all language’s fault – “people mistook language for solid ground, when really it was just a net.” When her teacher assigns the class a creative writing project, Annamae balks. She has no interest in making characters up if they aren’t going to be alive or possess free agency. To do so would be way too lonely.

This section of the novel is steeped in Talmudic lore – specifically, that the world came to be from the Hebrew alphabet – but you don’t need to be Jewish nor have any knowledge of the Talmud to appreciate what this author is accomplishing. All you need is an appreciation of philosophical discourse and rabbinical debates about life and existence, which are quite accessible and interesting to the reader.

Annamae is holding out for a soul mate who will think and feel exactly herself. Replication, not relationship. She does not want to be the one making it all up; it has to be real. But what if she is unreal? What if someone is making her up?

Flip the book and turn to “To.” Young Ani is also on a quest. As a girl living in a parable, she travels long distances with a young stolen kitten to overtake “The Captain”, who for the past five years, has served as her way station, a lost and found. Through her journey, she will chance upon other way stations, reassess the stories she has told herself, begin to appreciate the unwritten stories that have yet to be lived, and eventually learn that all stories are intertwined.

This novel’s main theme is searching – how each of us searches for understanding to alleviate the human condition. As Annamae and Ani move toward each other, we reach our own understanding of the relevance of this search in modern times. Quoting Leah Hager Cohen, “I wound up with a book in which two children from impossibly separate worlds – one of them Jewish and one whose story echoes that of the cast-out Ishmael – are driven to reach out toward each other longing to connect with a presence they sense but cannot name.”

What a magnificent book! And how wonderful of Bellevue Literary Press to take a chance on a work so unconventional! I am proud to be an advance reader in exchange for an honest review.16 s3 comments Mary Lins944 143

I threw “To and Fro”, by Leah Hager Cohen up in the air to decide which “side” of the novel to start with. This unique novel can be read from either end; you “flip” it midway. I was game for the gimmick, that proved not to feel gimmicky at all!

I started with the “To” side, which is a parable about a young girl named Ani, who with her mother was cast out by her father at the behest of his wife (think of Abraham and Ishmael).

Ani hastily embarks on a classic bildungsroman journey of spiritual self-discovery. Her exact age is never explicitly given, but I’d guess 10 to 12.

With a Fairy Tale quality of storytelling, we follow Ani (and the kitten that she brings along), as she travels after “The Captain”, a man who has protected and nurtured Ani for the past 5 years. (Enhanced reading experience if you are familiar with Kafka’s oeuvre.)

Ani often narrates glimpses into her past by starting: “In the story the plays in my head…” and on her journey she both confronts and comes to peace with her sad past. She also meets many strangers who help her to survive her unique odyssey - physically and spiritually.

On the “Fro” side of the story we find ourselves in modern day New York City following young Annamae who is being raised with her older brother Danny, by her widowed mother, Jo.

Immediately the reader notices overlapping details with Ani’s narrative. (I’m certain this happens “visa-versa” if you read Annamae’s story first.)

Annamae is lonely. She feels the pull of a presence, a “mirror” of herself, who is somewhere “on the other side”. Of course, it’s Ani.

Annamae has the guidance and counsel of her Rabbi, a woman who helps her form her worldview by asking questions, telling stories, and posing puzzles. I found their conversations to be fascinating!

Ultimately Ani and Annamae’s shared story of loss and searching for deep connection, drew me in and captivated my imagination. While we are told from the beginning there are no endings here, I nevertheless closed the novel feeling satisfied.

Many thanks to Bellevue Literary Press for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this unique novel.
complete4 s3 comments BookishlyJewish82 17 Read

This review initially appeared on my blog BookishlyJewish check it out for Jewish book related content

As you might imagine, given my current role on this website, I read a lot. I also read more widely across genres than I used to, which has been a real gift to my personal growth as a writer. It's engaging and informative, and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it also means I'm fairly hard to surprise when it comes to what a book can and cannot do. So I was delighted when To & Fro, a literary novel that is actually two separate stories, by Leah Hager Cohen, managed to subvert my expectations at every stage of the reading process.

This novel was mysterious from the get go. It appeared on my radar when someone filled out our Suggest A Book form, but un most forms which are filled out by either the author or their publicity and/or marketing teams, this form came from an unidentified fan who had seen early versions of the novel. May we all have critique partners and early readers who are so dedicated to our work. Or rather, may we all write such wonderful stories as to inspire the kind of devotion that has the reader going online and spending the time to fill out forms recommending the story to reviewers.

Then came the physical book itself. When I said earlier that To & Fro comprises two stories, I was not kidding. When I slid the book out of its packaging envelope I saw a lovely blue cover featuring a mirror. Then I flipped it over to read the back cover copy and instead found the exact same cover, only with a yellow background. What was going on? Turns out this is two mirrored narratives each starting from a different end of the book - you literally have to flip it over to read the next one - and they meet in the middle. There was also a little note explaining how the book came to be published, including a description of how Cohen tried to force the narratives to be interlocking in a bid to please traditional publishers, only to find her acceptance with an editor who gently suggested they be printed separately, as she had originally intended.

In one narrative, conveniently labelled "To," we follow a young girl named Ani who is living in circumstances that are obviously fictional. In fact, she is meant to be living inside Kafka's parable "My Destinaition," following the man on the horse who hears the bugles call. Ani's journey is full of what the reader recognizes as unusual kindness from strangers, but Ani's past is so full of unusual cruelty and misplaced guilt it takes her a while to get on the same page as the rest of us. She is not given any particular religion, nor are the people around her, but when she finds herself in a study house full of people debating and arguing an endless story, of which we are all part, the parallels to Judaism are unmistakable. As is the resemblance of Ani's past to a gender flipped biblical story of Ishmael.

By contrast, the other story, "Fro," follows Annamae, who is very obviously Jewish, and rapidly approaching puberty in Manhattan. Annamae is no less lonely or searching than Ani is, but she has both family and a community around her. When Annamae's struggles to express herself and be understood reach a critical level her mother finds that while medical professionals and school counselors are not helpful, a Rabbi is. Rabbi Harriet first met the family upon the occasion of Annamae's father's passing, and is exactly what Annamae needs. Not for spirituality per se, but because Annamae thinks about the world in ways which are most amenable to discussion with a gentle Rabbi who slurps her soup but has the best stories about creation and the Torah.

You can only read a book for the first time once, and by pure chance I started with the "To" narrative. I got a small thrill every time an artifact from "To" suddenly appeared in "Fro" and I found myself linking the stories together, finding how the narratives can be interlocked and interpreted - both separately and together. I was also inspired with so many different ways to write and treat narrative structure in my own work. However, I am deeply curious as to how this book would have felt had I read it the other way round.

That's not something I can experience on my own. And with that realization, my reading of the novel became communal. If I truly want to know what the experience is starting from "Fro" I am going to have to find someone who read it in that order. (The cover copy is very clear that starting from either side is acceptable and encouraged). Perhaps that person and I will end up discussing the varying points in the two journeys. We might argue what the significance of say, the ferryman's wings, is. Indeed we could spend hours on this, much the members of the study house Ani encounters. The beauty of this is not lost on me.

To & Fro is at its heart a story about loneliness and seeking. It features two girls, in the most vulnerable part of their lives, who are both seeking similar things, in similar ways, despite their dissimilar background and worlds. You can read almost anything you want into this story, but in doing so you join the narrative. It is a book about loneliness that ultimately forms a community from its readers. And that is a feat I have not seen before. I thoroughly enjoyed being surprised by it and look forward to debating it with other readers -perhaps even some of you!

Note: BookishlyJewish received a free arc of this book after requesting one from the publisher. Elizabeth GraverAuthor 16 books194

TO AND FRO is a luminous, charming, and utterly original novel filled with pleasures and provocations at every turn. Through some strange alchemy, Leah Hager Cohen has combined character-driven storytelling with brilliant philosophical forays into what it feels to decipher the world, honor its mysteries, and stay open to its many aches and gifts.1 Nancy1,610 399

Maybe stories don’t make things happen, but maybe through stories we find we are not alone.
from To & Fro by Leah Hager Cohen

Ani follows a man off “to and fro,” a journey in which she encounters different groups and new insights. Her first journey took place after she and her mother were exiled from their home in the middle of winter, during which Ani’s mother died.

Ani has a brown book, although she cannot read. A kitten she calls Company that she struggles to keep alive. A scroll in a bottle on a necklace.

Life is walking and arriving and leave-taking, each a place of learning and growth, each a place of gift receiving.

Turn the book around, and there is another story.

The psychologist diagnosed Oppositional defiant disorder. The psychotherapist mentioned executive function disorder. The neuropsychologist proclaimed Annamae had a “stellar brain.”

Annamae thought differently, deeply, and it made her lonely. She knew people could never understand each other, that words failed, language was a net through which words spilled “ pennies through the holes.” She would not do her creative writing assignment and was posed to fail the class. No one saw what she saw, the deadly seriousness of one’s complete control over the characters one created. She saw that letters had colors and personalities, and she recognized the stories that Rav Harriet told about alef-bet and the creation of the world.

She had a brown notebook called Company in which she wrote and drew, but lost it. She had a message in a bottle necklace, but it disappeared.

Fantasy or reality, each story is mesmerizing, taking one into an unforgettable and unique character’s deepest thoughts as she journeys through life. When you are finished reading both, you will want to turn the book again and keep reading, realizing how much more there is to discover.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.publisher-sent3 s Jane874 49

Thank you to LibraryThing, the author and the publisher.

This is the second book I've read that's flippable and I've come to enjoy them giving me a different perspective of this author's writing even though I've read a few of her books which were totally different in plot.

Doesn't matter if you start with To or Fro since it's two separate stories but I'm assuming the two come together? I decided to start with “To.” Ani seemed to be on her own on a farm run by the “Captain” who really wasn't one, with no one except the people who lived there who came and went. There was no mother but she mentioned her so there must have been previously and I'm wondering how she and/or her mother got there in the first place. It delved into when she and her mother were leaving their father's house who's wife lived there? No idea what that was about.

That said, I had no idea where “To” was going at page 64 and got bored so flipped it to “Fro.” Least this one was in the modern age with laptops, etc. It was about a girl Anamarie and her mother and her brother. She was a inquisitive child. Again, I felt this side of the book was just rambling on even though the chapters were short and I could read them quickly I decided not to finish this book.

This book was going nowhere for me. What a disappointment since I enjoyed her earlier novels that to me were “normal.”


jewish-fiction leah-hager-cohen librarything-wins Paula Korelitz170

While I enjoyed each of these stories, and even though the author tells the reader in advance: “Two worlds of one (f0r true searches blend) Herein two beginning with nary an end”, I had hoped for some clue as to why the incidents in each story reflect in the other.

I would have loved some inkling of how those unique events in each carried over to the other.
fiction Lisa Heinsohn68 2

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