A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

The Nolans lived in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 until 1919. Their daughter Francie and their son Neely knew more than their fair share of the privations and suffering that were the lot of New York's poor. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the story of Francie, an imaginative, alert, resourceful child, and of her family.

The American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" captured the imagination of readers in 1943. In the first published biography of Smith, the real-life stories behind the heroes in her novel are told.

Fast zwei Jahre lang hat Pasha sich bitten lassen. Nun endlich bequemt er sich zu einem Besuch bei den Eltern und seiner Schwester, die nach New York ausgewandert sind – während er, der nie ganz erwachsene dichtende Bohemien, lieber in Odessa zurückblieb. Jetzt ist er also da, mit all seinem russischen Künstlertum und Naturtalent zum Missgeschick: Am Strand gerät er in eine Windhose, bei einer Bootspartie verliert er die Ruder. Immerhin schafft Pasha es allein nach Manhattan, wo er mit neureichen Exilrussen feiert – anstatt, der eigentliche Anlass des Besuchs, bei seiner erkrankten Mutter zu sein ... Jahre später erinnert sich Pashas mittlerweile erwachsene Nichte Frida an den längst wieder auf der Krim lebenden Onkel – und beschließt, dort nachzusehen, wer es wirklich besser getroffen hat, die Ausgewanderten oder der in der alten Heimat Gebliebene ... Yelena Akhtiorskaya, in Odessa geboren und im Little Odessa genannten Brighton Beach/New York aufgewachsen, hat einen fulminanten Roman über Nostalgie, Neubeginn und die Suche nach den Wurzeln geschrieben: So literarisch-eigensinnig wurde schon lange nicht mehr von familiären Anziehungs- und Abstoßungskräften erzählt.

Ninetto war noch ein Kind, als er allein von Sizilien nach Mailand kam, um Arbeit zu suchen. Ein furchtloser Junge mit der Sonne des Südens im Herzen. Obwohl er noch zu klein war für das Fahrrad, fand er sogleich eine Anstellung als Bote. Heute, über fünfzig Jahre später, erkennt sich Ninetto in den Neuankömmlingen aus China und Nordafrika wieder. Sie haben dieselben Träume wie er damals. Und setzen alles daran, sie zu verwirklichen.

Books about Das Gesetz der Träume

Folder contains the script with extensive manuscript annotations and stage directions, cast list, scene transitions, sketches of stage lay-outs.

Play based on "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn": Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published ... --Emilie Coulter at Amazon.com.