pauline rothberg

Bella is an abused wife. Mother of seven children to Manny Wolfe, she lives a poverty-stricken existence in a poor Jewish area of Leeds, England. 

Over a sixty-year period, we watch Bella face and overcome enormous challenges -- her indomitable spirit and humour helping her survive the domestic violence and personal denigration she faces almost every day of her marriage. The toxic impact of this trauma is carried down the generation to her children, and even her grandchildren. 

This is a poignant and emotional story of a woman who battles her way through poverty, abuse, and the death of loved ones in one crushing blow after another. Through the years of war, and the cultural changes that come with the time marching forward, Bella faces it all with humour and her love of family and food. But a vast change awaits. Could the biggest journey of her life not only have her find the love she so craved, but tear her from the family she fought so hard to keep close?