Welcome!

From the author of the Book Club favorite, Pictures of the Past, comes another compelling, multi-layered novel, ripe with the twists and turns of the best historical fiction.

Passions of the Grande Dame Hotel: A Novel set at The Breakers of Palm Beach

(Now available!)

Captivating Historical Fiction

The intriguing saga of Palm Beach’s Breakers Hotel includes its conversion to a World War II army hospital, where over a dozen babies were born. Passions and fires will forever change the lives of three women, whose heart-rending journeys weave through the timeline of the resort.

It is February 1942, just months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Addie, the daughter of the assistant manager of the most beautiful resort in America, lives at The Breakers Hotel. She and her friend, Natalie, are bemoaning their world becoming devoid of its young men, as they are called to serve. And then the girls witness an explosion. German submarines have begun torpedoing Allied merchant ships right off the Atlantic shore. Soon, the area becomes one of the most active military centers in the nation, with thousands of soldiers stationed right at their doorstep in Palm Beach County.

In February 1975, Manhattanite Beth Morgan is distraught over a broken engagement. Her society mother dismisses her problem and insists that Beth accompany her to Florida. Kathryn Morgan needs to resolve something upsetting from her past, but she will not say what it is. When they join an historical hotel tour while waiting for their suite at The Breakers, Beth’s mother has a strange reaction to the handsome docent’s words, and Beth begins to wonder if that is why they have come. Could she have been one of the babies born at the Breakers Hotel?

From the story of Addie’s alluring mother, Rebecca, a Russian Jewish immigrant in the early 1920s, whose fiancé disappears when she follows him to America, to the tragedy of Natalie’s boyfriend in the war, it is a tale of love and loss, separations and reunions, guilt and absolution. It is a story of the American Dream and the power of passion.

Protecting Paige

“Compelling . . . engaging . . . a moving family saga”
—Kirkus Reviews 

It is the still innocent year of 1962, and twelve-year-old Paige awakens in a hospital room in Chicago. She has no memory of the random act of violence that has left her injured and orphaned. As she waits for her famous uncle to come for her, Paige develops a bond with Gladys, a comforting black nurse’s aide, unaware that Gladys’s son was involved in the crime.  Soon, the charismatic Maxwell Noble, a celebrated photographer, is located in Europe and rushes to her side. Although he has led a globetrotting bachelor life, he surprises Paige by embracing his new responsibility. He reveals to her a family legacy in the headlines, beginning with the 1915 Eastland disaster on the Chicago River. But Maxwell struggles to hide his long-time obsession with Paige’s mother, his enchanting French sister-in-law.

When Paige discovers her mother’s hidden diary, the secrets of the past begin to surface. Paige and her uncle embark on a journey to France, retracing events of WWII and the Holocaust, in an effort to find the one remaining family member they could claim. Her parents were always intent on protecting Paige, but Maxwell allows her to embrace the history and heritage that she was denied.  

A beautiful and moving story about a young girl’s coming-of-age and a man’s quest for a lost love, Protecting Paige combines family drama and fascinating historical detail to create a rich, thought-provoking world.

Available now!
Amazon

 

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Pictures of the Past

Pictures of the Past is a compelling saga sweeping through Chicago, Paris and Berlin, reliving events from pre-World War II Europe, but beginning in contemporary times. An Impressionist painting, hanging for decades in the Art Institute of Chicago and donated by the charismatic philanthropist Taylor Woodmere, is challenged by an elderly woman as a Nazi theft. Taylor’s gripping and passionate story takes us back to 1937. Sent to Paris on family business, he reluctantly leaves his girlfriend Emily, a spoiled debutante from Newport, Rhode Island. But once in Europe, he immediately falls in love – first with an Henri Lebasque painting, and then with the enchanting Sarah Berger of Berlin. After Taylor returns home, the Berger family becomes trapped in the Nazi web, and any attempts for the new lovers to be reunited are thwarted.

Interwoven with this narrative is the story of Rachel Gold, a beautiful and bright Chicago girl caught up in the times of the late 1960’s. Pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend Court Woodmere, Taylor’s son, she moves to New York to live with her aunt, a Holocaust survivor. Years later, as the controversy surrounding the provenance of the painting becomes public, Rachel’s grown son is disturbed by his inexplicable familiarity with the work of art. And it is only Taylor Woodmere who can unravel the complicated puzzle of their lives.

With a heart-grabbing ending, Pictures of the Past is historical fiction at its best, giving a personalized window to the powerful events and intriguing venues of the eras. From a world torn by the horrors of war, a love story emerges that endures through years of separation.

Praise for Pictures of the Past

“Exquisite Reading . . .  It calls to mind the rich tapestry of a Belva Plain novel.”
—Lisa Barr, Author of Fugitive Colors

“If someone has not already optioned Deby Eisenberg’s Pictures of the Past as a movie, they certainly should . . . a mesmerizing story.”
—Norm Goldman, Book Pleasures

“. . . a dynamic mix of characters and subplots along with an enlightening history lesson on Jewish culture.  The romantic tale that runs through the length of the main plot commands the reader’s attention to the story’s eventful end.” 
—Melissa Brown Levine, for Independent Professional Book Reviewers

“Pictures of the Past is a thriller spinning around World War II as a painting is accused of being stolen. . . Following a romance surrounding the painting, Deby Eisenberg crafts a unique and thoughtful story of the time . . . a much recommended read for historical fiction collections.”
—Midwest Book Review