The Girl on the Wall
A Memoir
The Girl on the Wall centers on questions the author had about her long-dead father. Who was his real daughter? Adler Hershi, also known as Samuel, Harry, or Herman Adler, was the eldest of six brothers in the Transcarpathian town of Mukacheve. They were the town’s taxi drivers, hoodlums, and protectors. Adler’s only daughter, Preeva, is raised in New York on his tales of adventure and heroism that she can barely believe. Tormented by dreams and mysterious feelings of grief and using the tools of modern genealogy and old-fashioned deduction, Preeva sets out to discover the truth of her father’s stories. Researching on the Web and journeying through Israel, Ukraine, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, she learns the history of the region and in the process becomes more sure of herself and her Jewish identity.