If You Come Softly

Elisha “Ellie” Eisen is a 15-year-old, white Jewish girl who was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York. The youngest of all of her siblings, Ellie now lives in a quiet and often empty apartment with her mother and father. In addition to this time spent largely alone, Ellie has also been deeply impacted by her mother’s history of abandoning their family. This has caused her to struggle with trusting her mother, created a fear that others will always leave, and left Ellie with a sense of loneliness.

When Jeremiah comes into Ellie’s life at Percy Academy, Ellie’s life begins to change. She questions her beliefs about race and racism, reconsiders what love might look like, and begins to become her own person facing a world that is challenging and rewarding. While her relationship with Jeremiah shows her the power of fate and inevitability in life, the loss of Jeremiah ultimately demonstrates to Ellie the unpredictability and ephemerality of time in life. By the book’s end, Ellie is meditating on how to simultaneously hold onto memories of Jeremiah and her past while accepting the forward momentum of time.