Fall into Fiction

There is nothing like escaping into a made-up world and experiencing the lives of complex characters who are nothing like you (or, perhaps, more like you than you’d ever care to admit). For our annual books issue, we interviewed five authors whose fictional stories take place around the globe, from a “fat camp” in New York to a ghetto outside of Prague. Warning: The characters and settings in each book are so intriguing, you’ll want to read straight through the night. I thank each of these authors for their deep responses, and hope you are as moved by them as I was.

Please post your thoughts and let us know what you think.

Michelle Cove, Editor, mcove@brandeis.edu

In This Issue

• The Lost Wife

  Alyson Richman explores how artists continue to create, even when confronted with horrific circumstances.

• Skinny

  In Diana Spechler’s novel, a young woman struggles to make sense of the link between hunger and emotion, while making peace with her demons.

• When We Danced on Water

  In this novel of intimacy and identity, of art and ambition, the line between passion and obsession is as fluid as the lithest dancer.

• The Murderer’s Daughters

  Randy Susan Meyers was forced to access dark emotional truths in this tale of two sisters who grew up in a house of abuse.

• Home in the Morning

  Mary Glickman tells the story of a Jewish family confronting the tumult of the 1960s—and the secrets that bind its members together.

• Resources - Vol 5, Issue 5

  A sampling of resources which provide more information on Jewish books.