(Fiction, 376p., Hebrew 2023/English 2025)
After emigrating to the United States in the mid-1960s, Leah maintains her connection to Israel by writing an annual letter on the Jewish new year to her old friends from a women’s teaching college. Comprising five decades of correspondence, the novel skillfully weaves together Leah’s high hopes and deep disappointments as she navigates relationships, marriage, divorce, single motherhood, financial struggles, and professional ups and downs. Leah’s relentless optimism and cheerfulness conceal disturbing truths behind her carefully crafted words. As her letters turn increasingly introspective, the secrets and shame that shaped her trajectory unravel.
Reading Group Guide from publisher New Vessel Press
Review by Ranen Omar-Sherman, Jewish Book Council, August 2025
Review by Shulamit Reinharz, Moment, September 2025
Review by Ellis Shuman, The Times of Israel, August 2025
Review by Robert Nagler Miller, Hadassah Magazine, September 2025
Interview with Lisa Hostein, Hadassah Magazine, September 2025 (video: 46 min., auto-generated captions)
Interview with Judith Rosenbaum, Jewish Women’s Archive, January 2026 (video: 58 min., auto-generated captions)
