Books: “The Clothes on Their Backs” by Linda Grant

To be or not to be? That is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in mind to squirrel one’s self away, hiding from all potential conflicts in life, or to face whatever life throws you head on.

That’s the question troubling Vivian, the 25-year-old protagonist of “The Clothes on Their Backs,” Linda Grant’s novel set in 1970’s London. Vivian is the daughter of Hungarian-Jewish refugees, living a life of solitude in a poor part of the city—an existence Vivian is dying to break free from.

By sheer happenstance, she meets Sandor, her father’s hated brother—a Holocaust survivor and slumlord who also came to London and has since done time in jail. Sandor, not realizing he’s met his niece, wants her to be his scribe, as he shares details of a pre-Nazi world her parents never told her about.

“Clothes on their Backs,” (referring to the only possessions her parents and uncle had while fleeing Europe, and Vivian’s own personal transformation through the outfits she wear), is also a fascinating period piece—

about at a time when skinheads were ascendant in the UK, beating up Jews and Caribbean immigrants and wearing swastikas on their jackets. It was listed for the Man Booker in 2008, and in a polarized world is perhaps even more worthy of your attention in 2022.