The lives of four generations in one family of wealthy German Jews, through both World War I and World War II.
For two weeks in April, Silvia Tennenbaum and her book, Yesterday's Streets, were the centerpiece of the Frankfurt Liest ein Buch (Frankfurt Is Reading a Book) literature festival. Silvia was honored in over seventy events, including readings of her work by German writers and leading representatives of Frankfurt's cultural scene. One of the highlights of the festival was when Silvia was awarded the Goethe Medal, the highest award of the Ministry for the Arts (Ministeriums für Kunst). Originally published in 1981, Yesterday's Streets, is a sweeping epic that takes a Jewish family through four generations, from the German empire to the Nazi regime. Kirkus Reviews describes it as "...a sleek, full-bodied saga overall, intensified throughout by the Frankfurt-born author's unmistakable personal involvement."
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Silvia moved to the United States in 1938. She lived in New York, then moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, where she lived for twenty years and raised three sons. Ms. Tennenbaum now resides in East Hampton, New York. From the book jacket: A rich, multilayered novel, this is at once the story of four generations of a family of wealthy German Jews and an unforgettable portrait of a vanished civilization. The Wertheims have lived in Frankfurt since the fifteenth century, for longer than most of their Gentile neighbors. Successful in business and the professions, they are, by the time the novel begins in 1903, also patrons of the arts who live in a style comparable to their neighbors, the Rothschilds. Against the backdrop of contemporary events.
