Jewish Book Festival brochure

Four Fabulous Fiction Authors
9:30 am - 12:00 pm • Naples Conf. Ctr.
Carol Zoref • Barren Island
Barren Island begins with the arrival of the Eisenstein family, immigrants from
Eastern Europe, and then explores how the political and social upheavals of the
1930s affect them and their neighbors in the years between the stock market
crash of October 1929 and the start of World War II ten years later. Labor strife,
union riots, the New Deal, the World’s Fair, and the struggle to save European
Jews from the growing threat of Nazi terror inform this novel as much as the
explosion of civil and social liberties between the two world wars. Barren
Island is a novel in which the existence of God is argued with a God that may
no longer exist or, perhaps, never did. It is a novel of place and passion.
Carol Zoref is an award-winning fiction writer and essayist. She teaches at
Sarah Lawrence College and New York University.
Moriel Rothman-Zecher • Sadness Is a White Bird
In this lyrical and searing debut novel, a young Israeli must reconcile his close
relationship with two Palestinian siblings and his deeply ingrained loyalties to
family and country. Moving back to Israel at age 18, Jonathan is eager to join
the army and defend the Jewish state his grandfather helped establish. But when
he meets Nimreen and Laith, his worldview is altered. And then a fateful day
arrives that lands him in prison and changes all three lives forever. Sadness
Is a White Bird is the story of one man’s attempts to find a place for himself,
discovering a beautiful against-the-odds love that flickers like a candle in the
darkness of a never-ending conflict.
Moriel Rothman-Zecher is an American Israeli writer, poet and novelist.
He is the recipient of a 2017 MacDowell Colony Fellowship for Literature.
Fiction Day Continues
1:30 - 4:00 pm • Naples Conf. Ctr.
Mark Sarvas • Memento Park
Elyssa Friedland • The Intermission
Told from the alternating perspectives of a husband and wife who both have
something to hide, The Intermission tunnels beneath a seemingly happy marriage
to ask: How much do we really know about the people we love the most?
Cass and Jonathan’s story examines how class and religious differences can
become devastating pressure points. As the months pass, the couple begins
to see that the worst of their problems are rooted in the personal and cultural
history that separates them – and in certain blistering secrets they may never
be ready to share.
Elyssa Friedland served as managing editor of the Yale Daily News, and is
a graduate of Columbia Law School. Her debut novel was Love and Miss
Communication.
Sponsored by
Beth Tikvah
Sponsored by Beth Tikvah
and Harmon-Meek Gallery
After receiving an unexpected call from the Australian consulate, Matt Santos
becomes aware of a painting he believes was looted from his family in Hungary
during World War II. To recover the painting, he must repair his strained relationship
with his judgmental father, uncover his family history, and restore his
connection to his own Judaism. Matt’s narrative is as much about family history
and father-son dynamics as it is about the nature of art itself, and the infinite
ways we come to understand ourselves through it. Of all the questions asked
about family, art, history and spirituality – a central, unanswerable predicament
lingers: How do we move forward when the past looms unreasonably large?
Mark Sarvas is the author of the novel Harry, Revised, which was published
in more than a dozen countries.
Buy tickets to both
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MAR
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WEDNESDAY
MAR
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