The Broken Vase ─ A Novel Based on the Life of Penina Krupitsky, a Holocaust Survivor

"Award-winning novelist Phillip McMath has done something remarkable: he's written a vital roman a clef whose scope is both intimate and expansive. Here is the vivid, compelling, and true story of one woman's struggle to survive the Holocaust. Part memoir, part imagination, The Broken Vase is evidence of a masterful writer bringing together his allegiance to history and his talent for storytelling."---Andrea Hollander Budy, author of House Without a Dreamer, The Other Life, and Woman in the Painting.

"This is a riveting account, told with great power and empathy, of a young girl ripped from her family and hounded across a continent by the agents of history's most monstrous project. It is also a witness to how individual courage and will can overcome a seemingly unconquerable fanaticism. Miriam Kellerman's unshakable refusal to surrender will inspire everyone whose freedom is at risk."---Judge Morris S. Arnold, author of Unequal Laws Unto a Savage Race, Colonial Arkansas, and The Rumble of a Distant Drum

"Master storyteller Phillip McMath, building on research by Emily Lewis, presents in The Broken Vase a riveting, true story of brutality and survival. McMath's alchemy transforms these facts of a broken life and a broken world into an intimate account of chaos, love, despair, and one woman's hope."---Jo McDougall, author of Dirt, Satisfied with Havoc, and other poetry books

Born to middle-class parents in July 1924 in Czernowitz, North Bukovina, Romania (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), Miriam Kellerman grows up in an atmosphere of culture and privilege that is interrupted when her country is invaded---first by Stalin in July 1940, then by Hitler in June 1941. Fearing for their lives, Jews like her begin to flee into the Soviet Union to escape the German advance. Separated from her parents, Deborah and Max, and later from her fiance, Isaac, Miriam finds herself alone and on foot, trudging ever eastward. The Broken Vase is a compelling narrative of her incredible struggle to stay alive as World War II rages.

A roman a clef ("novel with a key," or novel based on real life), The Broken Vase was written in close collaboration with Holocaust survivor Penina Krupitsky, who became the fictional Miriam Kellerman. This is a story of indomitable will and courage and a tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit. With the help of the World Jewish Organization, Krupitsky emigrated from the Soviet Union with her family to the United States. She now lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with her husband, children, and grandchildren and remains active in Holocaust remembrance organizations around the world.

Krupitsky says that she wants The Broken Vase "to help young people and become an inspiration to them. It will teach them how to build a world of love and not of hatred."

Phillip H. McMath, writer, trial lawyer, and Vietnam veteran, has combined his interests in history, in his native South, and in war to create a unique body of work, his fiction trilogy: Native Ground (1984), Arrival Point (1991), and Lost Kingdoms (2007). The latter novel won the Arkansiana Award for fiction sponsored by the Arkansas Library Association. McMath also is the author of two plays---Dress Blues and The Hanging of David O. Dodd. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with his wife, Carol, and practices law with McMath Woods PA.
Emily Matson Lewis, a lifelong resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, has always been fascinated by stories of young people who find their lives defined by extraordinarily difficult times. She spent a year interviewing Penina Krupitsky, whose life inspired this book and showed Lewis a story on a larger scale---one encompassing a grand sweep of time, geography, and emotion. Lewis feels honored to have provided the initial notes for The Broken Vase.