Inspired by true events and a postcard found in a museum, The Purpose, is the first novel to explore the Lithuanian complicity in the persecution of the Jews in WWII.
The Purpose: A Lithuanian Love Story is about those souls who know that darkness is the absence of light. It not just a crisp suspense-filled story, more importantly, it is a love story that tests both the brutal and gentle boundaries between souls. At its core, it is an exploration into the very nature of The Purpose with a mystic twist.
Two inseparable narratives are connected through the teachings of the Gra, a great sage. His thoughts are captured by his host in a secret book during a violent storm in the late 1700s outside Vilnius. The Gra expels his ideas about the concept of lonely souls and the condition of being in-love. In the first story, the secret book surfaces in WWII. We follow Davie, a downed American pilot, and Leah the leader of a band of partisans on the run in the forests of Panerai outside Vilnius. They are fleeing Algimantas Lutikis, leader of the SS sanctioned Lithuanian death-squad, the Ypatingas Burys. Then in the second, we trace Ravi, a Rabbi who uncovers the hidden book and Chanti, a Catholic artist, as their live unavoidably collide. Their forbidden love is brought to a climax when they are forced to face their deepest fears in modern Vilnius. The teachings of the Gra connect the stories into a taught web of betrayal driven by hate and revenge that challenges the reader to uncover the nature of The Purpose.
A story that will touch the hearts of those who are interested in the mysteries of love and war ... in the same way that they are captured by the inexplicable nature of hate in the absence of love.
Praise for The Purpose:
The narrative itself is written clearly in a poetic style remnant of some of the best authors of the last century, namely Michael Ondaatje; additionally, a feminine quality to Abraham’s diction and syntax, similar to Barbara Kingsolver’s writing, only adds to the beauty of the narrative and the love story at the core of the novel. This is a love story that should not be over-sentimentalised, nor should its sentiment be trivialised. I feel that Abraham handles this balance adeptly, and this is one of the major strengths of the narrative. Finally, there are a few action scenes and moments of conspiracy and mystery that create heightened tension within both narrative and reader, and the ability of Abraham to weave a story of both fact and fiction into a highly plausible plot can be compared to the similar ability of the late Stieg Larsson.
- Claire Strombeck
