Dorothea Shefer-vanson

Time out of Joint: the Fate of a Family Dorothea Shefer-vanson

Publisher Marketing: Time Out of Joint: the Fate of a Family starts out in Hamburg, Germany in 1924. The title is taken from a phrase uttered by Hamlet in Shakespeare's play of that name, in which the main character expresses his desperation at his inability to contend with fate. Initially, the van Dornbach family's comfortable way of life seems to be assured by Robert's successful tobacco business. While the parents are content to adhere to the ancient religious traditions, their two teenage children rebel against them. Beautiful Grethe and brilliant young Siegfried are eager to taste all the pleasures that the modern world has to offer. Their younger brother, Hermann, who is still under his parents' influence, appears content to continue on the path they have marked out for him. When Siegfried suddenly falls seriously ill, putting an end to his academic ambitions, his life is set on a completely different course, taking him to Kentucky in the USA to learn about the tobacco trade and to a promising post in Shanghai, China. But it is there that tragedy strikes. Grethe, who has gone to Amsterdam to work, moves to France to be with her lover, first in Paris and then on the Riviera. Surrounded by young people who are involved in the political movements that proliferate in Europe at that time, she tries to support herself by working in her profession of remedial gymnastics. She also participates in the grape harvest in the south, which is the favored occupation of French students. After her lover is killed in the Spanish Civil War she settles in the south of France, where she meets and marries a White Russian emigre. The political and economic events of the 1930s and 1940s cast a shadow over Europe, and each member of the Dornbach family is affected by them in a different way. The book was inspired by and based on actual documents and correspondence brought out of Germany by a relative of the author's, who managed to gain refuge in England after Kristallnacht, the Pogrom Night, of November 1938. The book ends with an episode in a hostel for refugee children who have been able to escape from Europe on a Kindertransport train. An epilogue describes the subsequent events and what eventually became of the various protagonists Contributor Bio:  Shefer-Vanson, Dorothea Amnon Jackont was born in Israel in 1948 and grew up and in Ramat Gan. He was born to a bourgeois family that immigrated to Israel after WWII from Belgium and received a European education which laidemphasize on good manners. Yet, he soon realized that a well behaved boy cannot survive among children whose parents had come from different countries and preferred to settle accounts by fists rather than politeness. Since he was robust and physically strong, he had no problem dealing with belligerent boys. Yet apprehensive least he should harm other kids, he learned how to practice self-control. In 1966 he was drafted to the IDF and participated in operations which are still kept in the dark. He was first wounded when the truck he rode hit a mine; he luckily survived and woke up in the hospital with a broken back. Four years later he was wounded again, while in service in a hostile foreign country, where he was imprisoned for several months before being released. His military experiences continually provide him with materials for his books. After his service, Jackont became involved in a variety of business activities (insurance, securities and real estate) for over two decades. In 1997 he decided on a change of career and turned to the academic world. He completed his BA in the Department of History at Tel Aviv University in three years and graduated with honors. He then spent four more years writing a PhD dissertation. After the completion of his thesis, he began teaching prose-writing in a unique method, which he had developed, based on the dismantling and reassembling of theindividual's life experiences. He has written eight novels, a collection of short stories, a financial-documentary book, and the biography of one of the heads of Mossad. All of his books became best sellers in Israel and some were translated into several languages including Chinese and Japanese. He is also the editor of some 200 books of various genres: from thrillers, to history and philosophy. When asked which of his occupations he liked in particular, Jackont answers, "The combination between all of them..."