Unbroken Threads

Jennifer Klepper did a great job in her debut novel Unbroken Threads. This is a complex story about immigration, family, identity, and relationships with very well-developed characters that really made me examine my own attitudes toward myself and others.  The story is told from two viewpoints. The first is Jessica, a high-powered attorney turned stay-at-home-mom struggling with her past, her present and her future. The other viewpoint comes from Amina, a Syrian refugee who fled her home with nothing but memories (many she’s trying to forget) and is applying for asylum in the US. While trying to figure out her her next step in life, Jessica volunteers for an immigrant legal aid group and finds herself representing Amina. This is a tough subject and I thought the author did a very good job digging into the complex issues surrounding immigration. She also did a good job examining the struggles of of many women today who chose to stay at home and now have teenagers and are wondering “what now?”.  Jessica and Amina were very well-developed characters and examples of very strong women. The book is emotionally heavy at times but after short breaks I went straight back to it because I just had to know how it ended!