Jennifer Rosner & Laura Spence-Ash

Please join us on Tuesday, March 28th, at 7 pm, as we welcome Jennifer Rosner (author of Once We Were Home) and Laura Spence-Ash (author of Beyond That, the Sea) as they discuss their new novels and the intricacies that surround writing historical fiction.

The event is free to attend but we do ask that you please wear a mask!

Once We Were Home, beautifully evocative and tender, is filled with both luminosity and anguish as it reveals a little-known history. Based on the true stories of children stolen during wartime, this heart-wrenching novel raises questions of complicity and responsibility, belonging and identity, good intentions and unforeseen consequences, as it confronts what it really means to find home.

             

As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make the impossible choice to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Bea, to America. There, they hope she’ll stay safe. As we follow Bea over time, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.

Jennifer Rosner's debut novel, The Yellow Bird Sings, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. She has also written a memoir, If A Tree Falls: A Family's Quest to Hear and Be Heard, and a children's book, The Mitten String. Jennifer's writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Massachusetts Review, The Forward, Good Housekeeping, and elsewhere.

Laura Spence-Ash’s fiction has appeared in One Story, New England Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. Her critical essays and book reviews appear regularly in the Ploughshares blog. She received her MFA in fiction from Rutgers–Newark.

Event date: 
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 - 7:00pm
Event address: 
10 Langley Rd
Newton, MA 02459-1972
Once We Were Home: A Novel By Jennifer Rosner Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9781250855541
Availability: Not in the store. We can order it and should have it in store in 3-5 business days.
Published: Flatiron Books - March 14th, 2023

National Jewish Book Award Finalist · Jewish Fiction Award Honor Book

"This forgotten history of displaced WWII children and the return to their roots [is] captivating, thought-provoking, enlightening, and bittersweet." ―Alka Joshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist


Beyond That, the Sea: A Novel By Laura Spence-Ash Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781250854377
Availability: Not in the store. We can order it and should have it in store in 3-5 business days.
Published: Celadon Books - March 21st, 2023

“Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view, but each character is utterly three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish."
—Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton Series