A Literary Afternoon Series
At the Levis JCC Sandler Center and B'nai Torah Congregation as noted
Personal appearances by 7 noted authors. Learn about their works and the creative process.
Individual Programs: $25, Gold and Gold Plus members: $20, Platinum Members: Free Programs at B’nai Torah Congregation are $18 for all tickets (no member discount) Literary Afternoon Series Subscription: All 7 Programs $150, Gold and Gold Plus Members: $130, Platinum Members: $36
Tuesday, November 28, 2:00 pm
Linda Kass, Bessie: A Novel
At Levis JCC Sandler Center
Just days after the close of World War II, Bess Myerson, the college-educated daughter of poor Russian Jewish immigrants living in the Bronx, is competing in the Miss America pageant. The tension and excitement in Atlantic City’s Warner Theatre is palpable, especially for traumatized Jews rooting for one of their own. Drawing on biographical and historical sources, Bessie reimagines the early life of Bess Myerson, who, remarkably rises to become Miss America and one of the most famous women in America. This intimate fictional portrait reveals Myerson’s inner struggles to escape her roots and fulfill her fierce desire to make her mark on the world. Bessie is a tender study of a bold young woman living at a precarious moment in our cultural history.
Linda Kass is the author of two historical novels, Tasa’s Song (2016) and A Ritchie Boy (2020). She began her career as a magazine journalist and correspondent for regional and national publications. She is the founder and owner of Gramercy Books, an independent bookstore in Columbus, Ohio.
Tuesday, December 12, 2:00 pm
Elizabeth Graver, Kantika
At B'nai Torah Congregation
A kaleidoscopic portrait of one family’s displacement across four countries, Kantika—“song” in Ladino—follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. A haunting, inspiring meditation on the tenacity of women, this lush, lyrical novel celebrates the insistence on seizing beauty and grabbing hold of one’s one and only life. Kantika is a meticulous endeavor to preserve the memories of a family, an elegy and a celebration both.
Elizabeth Graver’s fifth novel, Kantika, was inspired by the migration story of her Turkish Sepharic grandmother, whose journey took her from Turkey to Spain, Cuba and New York. Turkish, German and audio editions are forthcoming. Her novel The End of the Point was long-listed for the 2013 National Book Award and selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her other novels are Awake, The Honey Thief, and Unravelling. Her story collection, Have You Seen Me? won the 1991 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and Prize Stories, the O. Henry Awards. She teaches at Boston College.
Co-sponsored with B'nai Torah Congregation
Tuesday, January 9, 2:00 pm
Anne Burt, The Dig
At Levis JCC Sandler Center
Informed by timely issues of immigration, capitalism, and justice, yet timeless in its themes of love, identity, and competing loyalties, The Dig, inspired by the Greek tragedy Antigone, portrays a woman at odds with her history, forced to choose between her own ambitions and her loyalty to her beloved, idealistic brother.
Anne Burt’s debut novel, The Dig, is an American Booksellers’ Association IndieNext pick and was chosen by The Strand Bookstore in NYC as its featured mystery novel for Spring 2023. Anne is also the editor of My Father Married Your Mother and coeditor, with Christina Baker Kline, of About Face. She is the mother of step-twins.
Tuesday, February 13, 2:00 pm
Gioia Diliberto, Coco at the Ritz
At Levis JCC Sandler Center
One morning in late August 1944, as World War II draws to a close, Coco Chanel is arrested in her suite at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on charges of treason to France, stemming from her romance with a Nazi spy. Though Chanel epitomizes the treachery of France during World War II, at heart this is a novel about the choices one woman made when the stakes were the highest and the perilous, even deadly, consequences to those around her. In today’s world, a time when antisemitism and hatred in general have exploded anew, it’s a cautionary tale about the necessity of standing against evil when it stares you – seductively – in the face.
Gioia Diliberto is the author of seven books and a play. Her writing, which focuses on women’s lives, has been praised for combining rich storytelling, deep research, and lit-erary grace. Her books have been translated into several languages, and she has writ-ten for many publications. She also teaches in the writing program at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies.
Tuesday, February 27, 2:00 pm
Michael Golding, Quick Bright Things
At Levis JCC Sandler Center
Quick Bright Things is a delightful new novel about the Golden Age of Broadway. Set in New York in 1948, it follows Artie, a young rehearsal pianist, Joe, a visionary director, and Carrie, his intrepid Girl Friday, as they shepherd a production of a musical version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream towards opening night. Drawn from the personal experiences of its author, Quick Bright Things is a glittering love letter to the Great White Way and all the crazy, gifted people who keep it humming.
Michael Golding is the author of Simple Prayers, Benjamin’s Gift, and A Poet of the Invisible World, which was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award and was the recipient of the 2016 Ferro-Grumley Award. His novels have been translated into ten foreign languages. He is also a screenwriter, whose works include the adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s Silk. As an actor, Michael has performed in numerous plays and musicals, including twenty-one productions of Shakespeare. He currently lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California.
Tuesday, March 12, 2:00 pm
Talia Carner, The Boy with the Star Tattoo
Book available February 2024
At B'nai Torah Congregation
The Boy With the Star Tattoo is an epic historical novel weaving two yet-untold events set in France, the first set in 1946 in the aftermath of the Holocaust, when agents from Eretz Israel roamed the European countryside to rescue hidden Jewish orphans (Youth Aliya). The second is set in 1969, about the daring escape of the boats of Cherbourg, in Normandy, which were commissioned and paid for by Israel but whose delivery was blocked by a French arms embargo. Sharon, the assistant to an Israeli naval officer stationed in Cherbourg, is set to unravel the mystery of his journey from a French village to Israel. She is unprepared for the moral dilemma she will face upon solving the mystery.
Talia Carner is formerly the publisher of Savvy Woman magazine, a marketing consultant, and a lecturer at international women’s economic forums. An award-winning author of six novels and numerous stories, essays, and articles, she is also a committed supporter of global human rights.
Co-sponsored with B'nai Torah Congregation
Tuesday, April 9, 2:00 pm
Aaron Hamburger, Hotel Cuba
At Levis JCC Sandler Center
Fleeing the chaos of World War I and the Soviet Revolution, practical, sensible Pearl Kahn and her love struck, impulsive younger sibling Frieda hope to reach America. But when discriminatory new immigration laws bar their entry, the young women sail instead to Havana, Cuba, convinced that there they will find a way to overcome this setback. A heartbreaking, epic family story, Hotel Cuba explores the profound courage of two women displaced from their home who strive to create a new future in an entic-ing and dangerous world far different from anything they have ever known.
Aaron Hamburger is the author of the story collection The View from Stalin’s Head—which won the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Rome Prize — and two novels, Faith for Beginners and Nirvana Is Here. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O, the Oprah Magazine, The Forward, and many others. He lives in Washington, DC.
Virtual Literary Programs via Zoom
Virtual programs are free to Virtual, Gold Plus and Platinum Members, $10 for non-virtual members
Monday, October 9, 3:30 pm
Naomi Ragen: The Enemy Beside Me: A Novel
Taking over from her father and grandfather as the head of the Survivor’s Campaign, an organization whose purpose is to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, Milia Gottstein has dedicated her life to making sure the voices of Holocaust victims will never be silenced. It is an overwhelming and heartbreaking mission that has often usurped her time and energy being a wife to busy surgeon Julius, and a mother and grandmother. But now, just as she is finally ready to pass on her work to others, making time for her personal life, an unexpected phone call suddenly explodes all she thought she knew about her present and her future. Inspired by true events, Naomi Ragen’s The Enemy Beside Me is a powerful, provocative novel about two people fighting for reconciliation over unforgivable crimes of the past.
Naomi Ragen is an award-winning novelist, journalist and playwright. Her first book, Jephte’s Daughter, was listed among the one-hundred most important Jewish books of all time. Her bestselling novels include Sotah, The Covenant, The Sisters Weiss, and Devil in Jerusalem. The Enemy Beside Me is her fourteenth novel.
Tuesday, October 17, 3:30 pm
Jai Chakrabarti: A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness
In the fifteen masterful stories that make up this collection, Jai Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today, across borders, religions, and race. Throughout, the characters’ most vulnerable desires shape life-altering decisions as they seek to balance their needs against those of the people they hold closest. The stories in A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness capture men and women struggling with transformation and familial bonds; they traverse the intersections of countries and cultures to illuminate what it means to love in uncertain times; and they showcase the skill of a storyteller who dazzles with the breadth of his vision.
Jai Chakrabarti is the author of the novel A Play for the End of the World, which won the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction, was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award and short-listed for the Tagore Prize. His short fiction has received both an O. Henry Award and a Pushcart Prize and has been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories and performed on Selected Shorts by Symphony Space. His nonfiction has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and elsewhere. Born in Kolkata, India, he now lives in New York with his family.
Monday, December 4, 3:30 pm
Lisa Scottoline: Loyalty
Loyalty is an emotional, action-packed epic, set during the rise of the Mafia well before the events of The Godfather. This novel transports the reader to 19th century Sicily, a dramatic and ruggedly beautiful island where lush lemon groves and mouth-watering cuisine contrast with a turbulent history of colonization and corruption. Giovanni is kidnapped as a young boy and grows up in a madhouse. Years pass and Giovanni meets a beautiful isolated girl named Lucia. They set out to bring his kidnappers to jus-tice, getting an unexpected assist from septuagenarian Alfredo, who is secretly Jewish, but practices his religion undercover. The characters meet in a monumental showdown at the Sicilian sulfur mines, a place described as hell on earth. There, secrets will be uncovered, identities discovered, and the battle for justice fought to the death.
Lisa Scottoline is the #1 bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author of thirty-five novels. She has thirty million copies of her books in print and has been published in thirty-five countries. Her books have been optioned for film and TV. A former lawyer, Scottoline taught a course she developed, “Justice & Fiction,” at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, her alma mater. She lives on a farm outside Philadelphia.
