Who was behind the brutal murder of my great-grandmother? wondered Wayne Hoffman, a New York City-based journalist and novelist. The crime wasn't just a family legend-it made headlines across Canada in 1913-but her killer had never been found. In The End of Her, Hoffman meticulously researches this century-old tragedy, while facing another: his mother's decline from Alzheimer's. Weaving back and forth between past and present, Hoffman invokes in dramatic ...

Who was behind the brutal murder of my great-grandmother? wondered Wayne Hoffman, a New York City–based journalist and novelist. The crime wasn’t just a family legend—it made headlines across Canada in 1913—but her killer had never been found. In The End of Her, Hoffman meticulously researches this century-old tragedy, while facing another: his mother’s decline from Alzheimer’s.Weaving back and forth between past and present, Hoffman invokes in dr...

An accidental friendship unfolds between a widowed octogenarian Orthodox rabbi and a gay, Jewish twenty-something in this witty & thoughtful novel.In Yiddish, there is a word for it: bashert—the person you are fated to meet. Twentysomething Benji Steiner views the concept with skepticism. But the elderly rabbi who stumbles into Benji’s office one day has no such doubts. Jacob Zuckerman’s late wife, Sophie, was his bashert. And now that she’s gone, Rabbi Zuckerman g...

Does ancient wisdom provide the path toward less conflict and more freedom? Yes!For more than two millennia, the Tao Te Ching has been regarded as a guide for self improvement. But former journalist and public policy expert Wayne Hoffman suggests in that the teachings of Lao Tzu is, simply, the world's oldest written case for limited government.Hoffman's Tao of Liberty takes the ancient verses of the Tao Te Ching, chapter by chapter, and shows h...

Inside the closed community of Borough Park, where most Chassidim live, the rules of life are very clear, determined by an ancient script written thousands of years before down to the last detail-and abuse has never been a part of it. But when thirteen-year-old Gittel learns of the abuse her best friend has suffered at the hands of her own family member, the adults in her community try to persuade Gittel, and themselves, that nothing happened. Forced to remain silent, Gittel begins to ques...

Robert Vishniak is the favored son of Oxford Circle, a working-class Jewish neighborhood in 1970s Philadelphia. Handsome and clever, Robert glides into the cloistered universities of New England, where scions of unimaginable wealth and influence stand shoulder to shoulder with scholarship paupers like himself who wash dishes for book money. The doors that open there lead Robert to the highest circles of Manhattan society during the heart of the Reagan boom where everything Robert has learn...

New York Times Bestseller • Winner of the Ribalow Prize, awarded by Hadassah MagazineAn estranged mother and daughter reunite to confront their family’s role in World War II in this harrowing, unforgettable novel of family secrets, lost love, and inherited shame from New York Times bestselling author Jenna Blum.For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer refused to talk about her life in Germany during World ...

A rapturous novel of star-crossed love in a time of war—from the international bestselling author of The Secret of Clouds.During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague, Lenka, a young art student, and Josef, who is studying medicine, fall in love. With the promise of a better future, they marry—only to have their dreams shattered by the imminent Nazi invasion. Like so many others, they are torn apart by the currents of war.Now a successful obste...

264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined...The Ephrussis came from Odessa, and at one time were the largest grain exporters in the world; in the 1870s, Charles Ephrussi was part of a wealthy new generation settling in Paris. ...

'Victoria weaves an effortless tale that draws you in and makes you forget the world outside exists. She has the ability to make you step into the pages, to transport you to Thessaloniki as you live the story yourself. She writes in such a beautiful way and her characters have depth and credibility . . . Exceptional' Real Reader Review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐Dimitri Komninos is born as fire devastates Thessaloniki, where Christians, Jews and Muslims live side by side. Five year...

It is 1943, and Santa Cecilia has become a village of women. All the young men are away at war, except for Vito Leone, his best friend, and the shopkeeper's son. When Vito falls in love with Maddalena Picinelli, the shy and beautiful daughter of the town's most powerful family, a few obstacles appear in his path. Maddalena's sassy, iron-willed sister Carolina thinks he's a penniless fool. Her parents think his crazy mother has turned him into a mammoni, a mama's boy. But Maddalena sees ano...