Two Jewish children. A world in flames. A harrowing quest to survive.

In the summer of 1941, as Nazi forces sweep into the Soviet Union, fourteen-year-old Bronya dreams only of the violin. She has just earned a coveted place at the Moscow Conservatory. But when her horizons are shattered, she must carry her battered case as both shield and promise. Her younger brother Avsey, precocious and defiant, hoards stolen family treasures in a birch box, a child's secret world pitted against the chaos right outside his door.

With their mother institutionalized and their father preparing to defend the Fatherland, the Jewish siblings are scattered, forced into choices no child should ever face. Bronya is sent to harvest wheat in the Ukrainian fields, armed only with her violin, while Avsey evacuates with neighbors who desert him, leaving him to survive on luck and wit. Around them, their country burns — and survival becomes both an act of resistance and a fragile hope.

You, With Your Waiting is a searing novel of childhood lost, of courage forged in terror, and of the haunting bonds that tether us to family, memory, and home.

Sign up now to get the most out of Books2Read

Discover something great at Books2Read.

Thanks for signing up for Books2Read notifications!