In their early teens, two girls were forced to sit next to each other in school. Although they were complete opposites−one a social butterfly and the other a withdrawn bookworm−they soon realized that they shared similar hopes and dreams. Over time, against all expectations, they became best friends.
Until the war broke out.
Now, each was thrown into opposite sides of the conflict. And mistakes were made−unforgivable mistakes, that would shape both their futures.
How could their friendship endure?
BASED ON A REMARKABLE TRUE STORY, with an appendix including authentic WWII photographs and documents.
“Wonderful... A wry, sharply observed tale of both heroism and coming-of-age-story during one of the darkest times in humanity.”
“Compulsively readable... In this 200-page novella Kis-Lev proves to be yet again a distinctively contemporary literary voice.”
“Biting, brilliant exploration of a female friendship. And though The Two Marias focuses on young women, readers need be neither young nor female in order to enjoy it...”
In nineteenth-century Alabama, a drama of love, fate, and will is played out amid the intellectual ferment and racial tensions that defined the era. Annie Sullivan, an inexperienced 20-year-old teacher, is invited to aid a sickly deaf-blind girl who is considered dumb, and whose parents contemplate sending to an insane asylum.
When the young teacher agrees to treat the child with her experimental 'manual alphabet,' she never expects that she will find solace in the friendship with the little girl. Only through facing her own inner demons can the gifted teacher begin to help her pupil.
In The Teacher, Marcel Moring blends fact and fiction, atmosphere and suspense, to uncover the 50 years of tumultuous relationship between the most famous student-teacher pair who ever lived. This is an unforgettable story about the redemptive power of true friendship.
