Description

Bloodline: A Family History captures the moving and terrifying stories of author Lynne Cohen's paternal relatives, who travelled from nineteenth-century Russia to the New World, only to experience violence, fear, and sadness. They experienced a brutal double murder in Nova Scotia of a beloved family patriarch and his wife, her great aunt and uncle, and a deadly the fire in Sackville, New Brunswick, that almost killed her father, who turned hero on that cold December night. In addition, other relatives of Cohen's were forced to flee Cuba with nothing more than the shirts on their backs during the Cuban revolution. The Cohen family has undergone so much upheaval and so many intriguing events over the past two centuries in the Maritimes. This family history also shares inspiring stories of Cohen's recent maternal ancestors, who came from Ireland and settled in the "town of canals"-Lowell, Massachusetts-to work in the massive, grimy textile mills. Many of Cohen's cousins sent her personal, funny, priceless anecdotes and other information about their parents and the extended Cohen family tree. Bloodline combines gripping, humourous writing and a profound love of family to provide a fascinating family history.