Since medieval times, all first-born members of the far-flung Ravayah family have journeyed to Hanah's Paradise, a place of mystical beauty in the Galilee. There they have recorded their life stories in the family archives--chronicles that now hold 800 years of writings, drawings, recipes, and music from every corner of the world, a microcosm of the history of the Jewish people. Now Salomeia, a young immigrant from Romania, arrives to join her grandfather and take over the job of keeping the chronicles. With pain and wonder, she unearths tales of long-ago relatives like Don Simeon, a poetic young man forced to disguise his identity in Portugal during the Inquisition. She also learns what happened to her own parents during the Holocaust--traumatic events they have long hidden from her. Salomeia's discoveries, along with the current conflicts in Israel, propel this novel to its surprising conclusion.

Hanah's Paradise

Literature & Fiction

Ligia Rave

Literary

New Door Books

At the age of seven, Jason Benson first experiences the wonders of Atlantic City: Carousel music. The scent of Belgian waffles in the cool night air. A clanking roller coaster, riders screaming in free fall. Freak shows and bellowing barkers. The Miss America parade of fifty Cadillac convertibles gliding down the boardwalk. Amazed and smitten, Jason decides his real life will happen here, in this magical shore town. Growing up in a Philadelphia suburb in the 1960s and 1970s, he lives only for his summers on the boardwalk, where his father owns a pretzel stand. From a gypsy friend the boy learns to juggle, and soon "Jason the Magnificent" entertains rapt beachside crowds with his skill and his clever patter. He can't wait to finish high school so he can move to Atlantic City permanently. But his plans go awry. More than 20 years later, we meet him as a grumpy, distant New York copywriter who has never spoken of his youth. All his adventures on the boardwalk--and all the dreams he cherished there--remain a secret from his wife. In deftly interwoven passages, MR. BOARDWALK traces the excitement and perils of the young Jason and the moral growth of the adult who must come to terms with the past he tried to forget. It is a dual coming-of-age story like no other--a tale of magic and reality intertwined.

Mr. Boardwalk

Louis Greenstein

Contemporary

"Blends quiet and deeply human moments with the world-shaking consequences of epic science fiction, effortlessly weaving them together." A. C. Wise, author of The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories
"A heartbreaking yet uplifting exploration of fandom, of universal truths revealed by imaginary universes, and of the astonishing power of human invention and reinvention." Jon McGoran, author of Spliced and Drift
A deep dive into fandom at the turn of the new millennium, and the poignant story of one fan s efforts to find a new way to live life on Earth.
Mindy Vogel may need a wheelchair to get around, and she may still be living with her mother, but she travels easily between star systems as SkyLog officer Kat Wanderer, while carrying on a romance with a strangely compelling cyborg. And she runs a kickass fanzine. But after a split with her own fan club, Mindy starts to lose her bearings, and her mother s affair with a sleazy comics dealer threatens her home. Faced with so many disruptions, Mindy must re-imagine her life. Set at the moment when fandom went digital, this expansive novel finds room for Buckminster Fuller, the Ghost Dance of the Lakota, and cosmic-themed installation art alongside the fanfic, Cons, and cosplay of fan culture.
"Spot-on about how the dynamics of a show like SkyLog offers a way to understand the even-more-elusive dynamics of adult life. Most of all, in Mindy, Seidel has created a heroine who pushes through her personal and physical obstacles, and surprises both the reader and herself." Simone Zelitch, author of Judenstaat, Waveland, and Louisa

The Speed of Clouds

Miriam Seidel

Genre Fiction

"Everything Is Borrowed unfolds at the intersection of personal history, the history of place, creativity, inexplicable isolation, and attempts to understand it all. This elegant novel is utterly absorbing, thought-provoking, and also moving in ways that are all the more powerful for their quiet, unannounced approach. It is an original and powerful book, and I loved it." —Robin Black, author of Life Drawing
"In a novel of passion and insight, Nathaniel Popkin peels back the layers of a great American city to reveal the previous cities contained within it. He also discovers that a single man can be a city unto himself, densely inhabited by the men he once was and the potential men he might yet be, each driven by his own contradictions and errors, lusts and aversions, triumphs and sorrows." —Ken Kalfus, author of Coup de Foudre
Acclaimed architect Nicholas Moscowitz lands a major commission, but his drive suddenly falters. The site of the new project awakens guilty memories, and when he digs into the place’s history, he uncovers a 19th-century Moskowitz whose life offers strange parallels to his own. As Nicholas grows obsessed with this shadow man, the dual narratives of Moskowitz and Moscowitz, the city’s past and present, blend in unexpected and poignant ways. Ultimately Nicholas must face certain truths that don’t change over time—and use them to rebuild his own life.
"Nathaniel Popkin renders the world of this novel with such precision, and in such stunning detail, that everything is felt. The sense of place, the longing, the regret, the desire, the frustration, the irresistible pull of history all brim with emotional content as Nicholas Moscowitz is thwarted in his attempt to design an apartment building. He must first confront the site of the planned structure, that empty space where he discovers the selves he was, and those yet to be. An immersive read." —Diane McKinney-Whetstone, author of Lazaretto
"In Nathaniel Popkin's evocative novel Everything Is Borrowed, Philadelphia arises from its foundation shimmering with glass and steel. Popkin's portrait of the city of brotherly love carries whiffs of Bellow's Chicago circa Seize the Day, or Newark in Roth's best moments. This is a novel to live inside, and to linger in." —Daniel Torday, author of The Last Flight of Poxl West,
"As architect Nicholas Moskowitz digs through the history of his neighborhood, releasing anarchists and holy men, immigrants and philosophers, and his own lost love, he discovers that we cannot build a meaningful future until we learn to honor the past. Both poignant and cerebral, Everything Is Borrowed is an evocative meditation on the bond between a man and the places that formed him." —Stephanie Feldman, author of The Angel of Losses
"Nathaniel Popkin has crafted a beautifully written, skillfully researched historical mystery. The story is compelling, the characters are fully realized, and the voice is gentle and engaging." —Liz Moore, author of The Unseen World

Everything Is Borrowed

Nathaniel Popkin

In this heart-twisting memoir, a teen boy is the object of his mother s deep sexual urges. Does it cross the line into abuse? Is he responsible for her frequent retreats to mental hospitals? Can he ever forgive her? The son needs most of a lifetime to unravel, then free himself from, the mysteries of her demise. Fourteen-year-old Mark Lyons awakens to his mother screaming at his father, threatening to tell the children her darkest secrets, including her sexual obsession with her son. The “Black Dog” soon drives her to mental hospitals, electroshock therapy, and addiction. Some days Mark is banished from home to avoid setting her off. He finds sanctuary in the greasy garage of his friend Richie and in training his pigeons to circle home to their roost. At seventeen Mark flees his home, but he never really escapes. As an adult he contends with guilt and rage and a profound fear of loving. Decades later, after circling back home time and again to reclaim his childhood, he finds a way toward peace and forgiveness.

Homing: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Mark Lyons

Memoirs

An urgent and deeply felt call to face our complicity in the Earth's destruction. In the shadow of an escalating eco-crisis-a looming catastrophe that will dwarf the fallout from COVID-19-how can we explain our society's failure to act? What will we tell future generations? Are we paralyzed because the problem is so vast in scope, or are there deeper reasons for the widespread passivity? Nathaniel Popkin explores the moral, social, and psychological dimensions of the crisis, outlining a path to a future spring.

To Reach the Spring: From Complicity to Consciousness in the Age of Eco-Crisis

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Is walking a subversive act? For the authors of WAYS OF WALKING, it can be. Some walk across forbidden lines, violating laws to seek freedom. Some walk to bear witness to social injustice. Still others engage in a subtler subversion-violating the social norm of rapid, powered transportation to notice what fast travelers miss.WAYS OF WALKING brings together 26 writers who reflect on walks they have taken and what they have discovered along the way. Through walking, these authors become more attuned to the places they move across, more attentive to intricate ecologies and layered histories-and more connected to themselves as well. Their small steps of rebellion lead to unexpected discoveries.

Ways of Walking: Essays (Walkabout)

Forest, Ann de

Essays & Correspondence

In Janice Deal's linked story collection STRANGE ATTRACTORS, everyday people navigate the uncertainties of life in the American heartland, seeking order in chaos with a very human mix of resilience and folly. At first glance, the fictional Ephrem, Illinois, seems a friendly, familiar town: it draws you right in, even if you don't need supplies at the mall or a snack at Brat Station. But as you come closer, you discover people who are complex and unpredictable. Life itself is capricious, and loneliness can turn a person strange. Past traumas linger. Illness sometimes falls like a hammer. Yet there's much affection here, small and large examples of human kindness. For years, Janice Deal has been publishing these award-winning stories about Ephrem. Now assembled for the first time, these extraordinary tales offer a masterful snapshot of life in today's small-town America.

Strange Attractors: The Ephrem Stories

Deal, Janice

United States

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