Not Our Kind: A Novel

One rainy morning, two years after the end of World War II, a minor traffic accident brings together Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar grad-uate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult thirteen-year-old daughter, Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a tutor.

Eleanor’s mother disapproves of her daughter going to work in a Park Avenue building that forbids Jews, but Eleanor forms an instant bond with Margaux and takes to the position, even agreeing to join the family at their country home. Soon after she arrives there, Eleanor meets Patricia’s charming, bohemian brother, Tom, and feels an immediate spark. Then one hot summer evening, a line is crossed, and Eleanor will have to make a decision with consequences for all of their lives.