T Cooper's latest book is an interesting blend of fiction and non-fiction, using historical events such as Charles Lindbergh's famous flight across the Atlantic as anchors for a broader family story. The writing is crisp and fluid, with realistic dialogue and descriptive settings, and while a bit on the long side (400+ pages), moves forward at a good pace.

The Lipshitz family is the focus of the first part of the book, starting with the family tragedy that shapes their American life. Young Reuven disappears as the family disembarks at Ellis Island, and while the reader discovers Reuven's fate, the family never does, thus creating the tension that underlies the story line and the family's relationships.

Esther, the family's matriarch, slowly descends into a fantasy world where she constantly looks for her son in every blond, blue-eyed boy she encounters. She loses touch with the rest of her family, which disintegrates as they settle into an early 20th century American life.

Mostly chronological, the book does dip back into the past to show the events that led to the Lipshitz emigration. In a series of chapters reminiscent of ÔFiddler on the Roof,Ó Lipshitz Six describes the pogroms of 1903 Czarist Russia and the family tragedies that occur there. However, the tragedies continue in the United States as the children grow up, the parent age and sicken, and family members disperse to distant corners of the country. Overlying everything is the question of Reuven, and when Esther decides that Charles Lindburgh is her son, her obsession about his exploits further shapes the family dynamic.

Attached to this family saga is the book's second part, which occurs in present day New York and is told through the first person narrative of the Lipshitz's last relative, T Cooper. The contrast between the two sections is sharp, and yet Cooper's narrative provides a solid bookend to the book's beginning.

The blurring between fiction and non-fiction makes the book, at times, a little confusing, but as the plot focuses primarily on the fictional Lipshitzs with the historical events added for color and chronology, the fictional elements keep the book centered.

Deftly written, Lipshitz Six is a fun trip through the early 20th century accompanied by "Lucky" Lindbergh.