http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernice_Rubens

Dialogue with Menhir reminded me of a wonderful novel by BR and looking for name led me to an obit - I'd not realised she was dead. I love her stuff.

One of my all-favourite books is 'Spring Sonata' about a baby who chooses not to be born, but keeps a diary and plays the violin inside the womb - Rubens is so good she makes me happy to suspend disbelief. She also describes a family therapy session in the novel so well that my fantasy is that she'd been to the Family Institute on Cathedral road in Cardiff. She does talk about Cathedral Road in another of her novels. I actually have two copies of Spring Sonata so I can lend one without being heart-broken if it doesn't come back!

I love her intimate portrayals of people and relationships and her sprawling sagas such as Mother Russia and Brothers.

She was Cardiff-born of Jewish refugee stock and her pictures of Wales and of Jewish culture ae equally engaging for me. There is a fabulous explanation of how her family came to Wales that is used in one of her novels:

Bernice Rubens was born in Cardiff in 1928. Her father was a Russian Jew who had emigrated to Britain from Latvia at the turn of the century. Finding himself a refugee in Hamburg, he had bought a ticket which he thought would get him to America, but in fact it landed him in Wales.

Another novel that manages to be dark and funny is 'Our Father' - about a non-religious woman who meets God. On the more everyday she writes compellingly about marital violence, mental illness, families and relationships.