Page 7 - Jewish News_February-2021

FEDERATION NEWS February 2021 7A

People of the Book...continued from page 6A
engrossed in whatever I’m creating greatest races, along with an epic love our lives, and it has. But I’d argue it’s and uncles, none of them wanted to
that I shiver with adrenaline. I need story. changed our lives by encouraging se- talk about it beyond mentioning names
silence and total isolation – no laptop What is it that you hope people clusion – enabling people to stare at a and what they did in the United States.
in a coffee shop. And I’m very linear. I who read it glean from this book? screen, alone, for hours on end, while When I pushed for information about
have to start a story at the very begin- I would love people to think more the inventions in the early 20 centu- Russia, their answer was always the
th
ning. I’m not one of those writers who about the year 1914. The turn of the 20 ry encouraged inclusion. People could same: “We left for a reason. Let’s not
th
can work on the ending first and skip century is one of my favorite historical suddenly travel freely to meet and find talk about it.” And I hated that. Now,
around writing scenes. I’m a builder, other people, to work and collaborate. that generation has passed away and
not a jazz player. And some days my Telephones, radios and newspapers all I’m left knowing the end, but what I
words flow so spectacularly, I become shared ideas widely. All of these boom- wanted more than anything was to
convinced I’m a literary genius. That ing networks brought us together. And follow it back to the beginning. What
is, until I re-read whatever I’ve writ- I like that – the romantic notion that could have been so awful that they’d
ten a few hours later, and it’s inevita- science should bring humanity togeth- drop everything they had to come to
bly garbage. I become convinced that er. I wish we had more of that today. a country they’d never seen, to learn
I’m now talentless and no longer have What did you learn about your- a language they’d never heard, and to
a career. But eventually, I force myself self by writing this book? look for work where none of their qual-
to power through the doubt and keep Writing this book taught me about ifications would matter? That question
writing. In the end, it’s always me, what my family might have endured in has haunted me for a long time. And
alone in a room with a computer, lost in Russia, in leaving everything behind it’s one I ask often when I read about
my head. That’s it. The big glamorous to flee to the U.S. My father’s family migrants today doing the same. Can
life of a bestselling author. came to the United States from Rus- you ever know if leaving is/was the
Rachel Barenbaum / sia. When they arrived in Philadelphia, right decision?
A Bend in the Stars they stopped speaking Russian and Tell us a bit about your writing
Rachel Barenbaum’s debut novel, A Yiddish and refused to speak anything process.
Bend in the Stars, was named a New Rachel Barenbaum but English. It never bothered me until Writing A Bend in the Stars really
York Times Summer Reading selection periods because I would argue it was I was around 10 years old, when my started with research. I love this time
and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great the last time ideas were more power- parents plastered our house with old period, and long before I sat down
New Writers selection. It is also a Bos- ful than fear, when a rash of optimism family photographs, many of them to write, I read dozens and dozens of
ton Globe bestseller. Barenbaum is a and faith in our ability to change the from Russia. Who were those people books about czarist Russia, science
prolific writer and reviewer for the Los world led to inventions, art and ideas carefully dressed in black, staring at the and philosophy around the 1900s, and
Angeles Review of Books, the Tel Aviv that truly altered history. There was an camera? Why did they look so scared? the life of Jews living in Russia. In
Review of Books and Dead Darlings. energy and optimism that hasn’t exist- When I asked my grandparents, aunts continued on next page
She is an honorary research associate ed since. But that kind of exuberance
at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. brings out the best and the worst in hu- For a complete schedule
A Bend in the Stars is a World War mans. In this case, it led to greed and of events, admission
I-era novel and love story of a brilliant culminated in World War I, a moment
young doctor who races against Ein- so horrendous that most of what was information, author bios

stein to solve one of the universe’s invented or created in those years right PEOPLE OF THE BOOK and book synopses,
great mysteries – the theory of relativi- before is often overlooked. Today,
ty. Grounded in history, the book offers many people talk about the internet as visit jfedsrq.org/books.
an account of one of modern science’s the single invention that has changed

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