The Dream Stitcher - Spotlight

Anchor House Publishing
July 2019

Fans of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, will enjoy The Dream Stitcher!

The Dream Stitcher’s story moves eloquently between two time periods and places, America in 2008 and World War II Poland.Hard times are forcing Maude Fields to take in her estranged mother, Bea, whose secrets date to World War II. Bea arrives with a hand-embroidered recreation of La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde, the iconic 11th century Bayeux Tapestry. The replica contains clues to the identity of Maude’s father and the mythical Dream Stitcher, Goldye, a Jewish freedom fighter who helped launch the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

With the help of her pregnant daughter Rosie, Maude is determined to unravel decades of family deception to learn the truth about her parentage. With Poland on the brink of invasion by Nazi Germany, Goldye discovers—with the guidance of imaginary friend Queen Mathilda—that she can embroider dreams that come true. She becomes an apprentice at Kaminski Fine Fabrics, where she gains a reputation for creating wedding dresses for Aryan brides that bring their dreams to reality. She becomes known as the Dream Stitcher.

Goldye meets and falls in love with Lev, a freedom fighter who wants to unite Jews and Poles to fight the Germans. Goldye sews images to help him. And she creates a powerful symbol for the resistance of the common people: a stitched hummingbird that spreads hope.Goldye leaves the ghetto to live with her sewing mentor, Jan Kaminski, who gains identity papers for Goldye as his Aryan niece. A Nazi commandant takes Jan and Goldye on a dangerous trip to France to decipher the symbols in The Bayeux Tapestry. The Nazis hope images in the Bayeux will reinforce Germany’s right to world domination. In California, Maude’s quest for the truth leads to family she didn’t know she had, and perhaps, love.

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About the Author

Author Biography Deborah Gaal abandoned a love of theater to take over the family flooring business and ended up running a wholly-owned subsidiary for E.I. DuPont de Nemours (DuPont). After leaving DuPont, she coached entrepreneurs and corporate execs in addition to creating and guiding leadership seminars for women. Finally, she returned to her dream of living a creative life by writing. She is a repeat recipient of the San Diego State University Writer’s Conference “Editor’s Choice Award.” In addition to two full-length works of fiction, her short story “Weekend at the Pere Marquette,” appeared in Creative Writing Demystified by Sheila Bender (McGraw- Hill) as well as in the online writing magazine Writingitreal. She has raised four children and happily resides in Southern California with her husband, an exuberant Chocolate Lab, and two feral cats. When she is not writing, you can find her on the lawn bowling green.