One of Them

In Zeldis’s nuanced story of friendship and heritage (after The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights), two American college students grapple with their Jewish identity in the wake of WWII. In 1946, Miriam Anne Bishop drops her first name when she enrolls at Vassar College, choosing to pass among her gentile classmates. Delia Goldhush, on the other hand, doesn’t hide her Jewishness and ignores the snubs and rude remarks made by Anne’s friends. Anne is intrigued by Delia and they form a secret friendship, which implodes when Anne chooses her gentile friends over Delia. Anne feels terribly guilty, however, and leaves her snobby clique to study in Paris for her junior year. Delia is also drawn to Paris, where she was living with her family on the eve of the German invasion. There, she searches for answers about her French sculptor mother, Sophie, who stayed behind when the Goldhushes fled back to the U.S. and may have been killed while fighting with the Resistance. Anne and Delia meet by chance in a Paris gallery, and Anne offers to help Delia, hoping to renew their friendship. Zeldis adds depth to the brisk story in her portrayal of the characters’ complex feelings about their Jewish heritage. It’s an appealing historical. Agent: Susanna Einstein, Einstein Literary. (Sept.)