The Alper JCC is abuzz. The author who will be appearing at the annual Women’s Day Luncheon received rave reviews on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Book Section and was featured in People Magazine.
The New York Times reviewer writes, “She (Krauss) gives us her tragic vision pure. It is a high-wire performance, only the wire has been replaced by an exposed nerve, and you hold your breath, and she does not fall.”
People Magazine gives author Nicole Krauss four stars and comments that “for readers who love beautiful language and complex characters, Great House will be hard to put down.”
The haunting and powerful story is about a stolen desk that contains the secrets and becomes the obsession of the lives it passes through. A reclusive American novelist writes at the desk she inherited from a young Chilean poet who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet’s secret police. Twenty five years later a girl claiming to be the poet’s daughter arrives to retrieve it, sending the writer’s life reeling. In London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers, among her papers, a lock of hair that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer reassembles his father’s study plundered by the Nazis in Budapest.
Krauss will speak on Wednesday, Nov. 10 at Women’s Day 2010, the featured event of the 30th Jewish Book Festival: Perspectives — to Inspire, Educate & Entertain. Check out these other great events, including legendary singer and composer Neil Sedaka:
MONDAY, NOV. 1, TOM SEGEV Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends — Tom Segev’s biography of Simon Wiesenthal exposes new details of the legendary Holocaust survivor’s life-long dedication to the pursuit and punishment of Nazi criminals. Segev obtained access to Wiesenthal’s private papers and secret service records which reveal the Nazi hunter’s role in the capture of Adolf Eichmann and unlikely friendship with Kurt Waldheim.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3, MELISSA MÜLLER Lost Lives, Lost Art — Co-author Melissa Müller details Nazi pillaging of the art collections of wealthy German and Austrian Jews. The authors trace the dispersal of these collections, the fate of the collectors, and the restitution of some of the lost art.
THURSDAY, NOV. 4, DR. MAINA SINGH Being Indian, Being Israeli — Although Jews lived in India for hundreds of years with little anti- Semitism, thousands made aliyah when Israel gained its independence. Dr. Maina Singh examines the 70,000 second and third generation Indian-Israelis, showing how ethnicity, gender and class intersect with Jewishness to create their complex identities.
MONDAY, NOV. 8, CATHLEEN SCHINE The Three Weissmanns of Westport — Cathleen Schine has written a hilarious, contemporary adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel, Sense and Sensibility. This is a great choice for book clubs.
TUESDAY, NOV. 9 MITCHELL G. BARD, PH.D. The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East — Mitchell Bard follows Arab states and other powerful interest groups who have waged a bureaucratic guerrilla war to undermine American- Israeli relations. He reveals the scope and activities of today’s Arab Lobby “whose goal is feeding America’s oil addiction, obtaining more sophisticated weaponry and weakening our alliance with democratic Israel.”
SUNDAY, NOV. 21, NEIL SEDAKA Waking Up is Hard to Do — Neil Sedaka will entertain with songs and stories from his joyous children’s book Waking Up is Hard to Do. The Grammy Award winner’s picture book and CD based on one of the most popular songs in music history is a musical and visual celebration of the everyday joys of home, family, and neighborhood.
For times and locations, call 305-271- 9000, ext. 268, or log on to www.alperjcc. org.
