Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s raw, searing memoir, “When We See You Again,” pierces the reader’s heart and mind throughout its 272 pages.

The book details Goldberg-Polin’s profoundly painful journey over the two years following October 7, 2023, when her eldest child, Hersh Goldberg-Polin was abducted from a field shelter by Hamas terrorists and taken captive, as he and others were attacked at the Nova desert rave.

Some 1,200 people were slaughtered in the bloody attack on southern Israel, and 251 were abducted to the Gaza Strip on October 7. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, was killed in captivity on August 29, 2024.

Immediately following the onslaught and Hersh’s abduction, the family embarked on an immense fight to free him from Hamas, becoming a face of the hostage struggle on the international stage as they met with world leaders and advocated on behalf of those held in Gaza.

Goldberg-Polin is the primary voice in the book, which was released on April 21 by Random House, and includes an afterword by her husband, Jon Polin; she is also the reader on the audio version. The Hebrew translation will come out in May.

Goldberg-Polin has often spoken about her transformation from a “regular, warm beige” life as a homemaker and educator to become a mother whose voice resonated around the globe.

“When We See You Again” delves into that struggle, exploring the sharp rupture of Goldberg-Polin’s life brought about by her son’s abduction, into “The Before” and “The After,” as she calls it in capital letters.

There are many delightful moments shared from The Before: Goldberg-Polin as an only child growing up in Chicago, wholly loved and appreciated by her parents, doted on by her grandparents. She shares memories of summer camp in northern Michigan and her first steps delving deeper into her Judaism.

She offers details of her life with Polin, a fellow Chicagoan whom she re-met as a young adult and married in Jerusalem, and the early years of........

© The Times of Israel