Contemporary Jewish Fiction with Cynthia Good
Presented by: The Schwartz/Reisman Centre for Adult Jewish Learning
Thursdays, October 19 & 26 and November 2 & 9, 10:30 am
We look forward to in-person (and online) learning and the opportunity for in-depth study. Join us this fall for our usual lively discussion around two novels with important Jewish content and profound explorations of fate, love and the universe.
October 19 & 26: Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret — one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years later, bring secrets of their own. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street — and in a galaxy — where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined.
“Wise, deeply perceptive, suffused with light in spite of life’s darkness, Dani Shapiro’s Signal Fires is an amazing novel. Shapiro inhabits her characters with lucidity and compassion and renders their ordinary lives transcendent.” –Claire Messud
November 2 & 9: After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage Portrait and National Book Circle Award Winner Hamnet, comes this stunning novel of love and grief. From 2000, this was the Irish writer’s first book, about three generations of Raikes women and their lives in the small Scottish town of North Berwick, focusing primarily on Alice, who is suffering from loss and heartbreak. Central to the story is the passionate relationship of Alice with her Jewish partner John.
“What makes this book remarkable is a luminous use of language and imagery which turn Alice’s world into one of elements and of sensation; a universe of light, smell, taste, heat and sound.” The Guardian
