Who was behind the brutal murder of my great-grandmother?
wondered Wayne Hoffman, a New York City-based journalist and novelist. The crime wasn't just a family legend-it made headlines across Canada in 1913-but her killer had never been found. In
The End of Her
, Hoffman meticulously researches this century-old tragedy, while facing another: his mother's decline from Alzheimer's. Weaving back and forth between past and present, Hoffman invokes in dramatic detail the life and death of his immigrant great-grandmother in Winnipeg, and his mother's downward spiral. In the process, he discovers an extended family that has been scattered across thousands of miles for a hundred years.
"Journalist Hoffman (
Hard
and two other novels) makes his nonfiction debut with a riveting account of his dual efforts to care for his aging mother and crack a century-old unsolved murder...Hoffman makes the details of his dogged research vivid...and his conclusions about the murder are convincing. Meanwhile, he movingly recounts his mother's increasing memory loss and overall decline. This is a unique addition to the cold case subgenre, and a powerful mix of true crime and family memoir."
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A murder mystery wrapped like a delicious knish around a familial love story.
is the story of a journalist attempting to solve the long-ago puzzle of who shot his great-grandmother in her bed in small-town Winnipeg in 1913. But the
why
of it is at the heart of this beautiful book. Wayne Hoffman throws himself into this old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting (a true education for budding journalists) because he wants to give his mother the gift of her history before he loses her completely to dementia. The book's portrayal of Alzheimer's is horrible and hilarious; Wayne's voice is warm, deeply loving, drily funny and thankfully unsentimental."
-Marjorie Ingall, author of
Mamaleh Knows Best
"This is one of those rare, fine books that gives you two of the dearest gifts in literature: a story so consuming you forget time, and an author with the gift to spin, from these supposedly ordinary lives, a profound chronicle of identity, family, memory, and love-and suspense, too."
-Boris Fishman, author of
Savage Feast
"Wayne Hoffman has produced a fascinating and compelling story of his family history. Meticulously researched and skillfully written, he brilliantly weaves together the mystery of his great-grandmother's murder long ago in Winnipeg, his nearly decade long search to find the truth about this tragic event, and his joyous and poignant relationship with his ailing mother that inspires him and propels his quest. In particular, his recreation of Winnipeg's impoverished immigrant quarter during first decades of the twentieth century and the various complexities that shaped the lives of his great-grandparents and relatives is an absorbing tale rich with detail and vivid personalities."
-Allan Levine, Winnipeg historian and author of
Seeking the Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience