When a book breaks you open

When a book breaks you open

I want to share a few books that blew me away, as well as some new things of mine.

I just finished Colum McCann’s ALPEIROGON. Like many of us, my heart has been split open since October 7. I’ve done a lot of crying with no outcome other than to conclude that the older I get the less I know.

McCann captures what I wish I could say. As Julie Orringer (I loved her book, THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE) wrote in a NY Times review, McCann’s book is an “empathy engine.” Written in 1001 short chapters à la Arabian Nights, APEIROGON explores the friendship forged through love and terrible loss between two fathers—a Palestinian and an Israeli. McCann captures their separate and joined worlds with nuance and context, history and culture. He includes surprising, refreshing tangents into bird migrations, tight rope walking by Phillipe Petit (McCann explored this in LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN), the troubles in Northern Ireland, and on and on. By the end, I was broken open in a good way.

McCann shows a path to peace minus the deafening, deadening, conversation-crushing slogans that flood our airwaves and feeds. This book was clearly years in the making, yet could not be more timely.

(For balletomanes, McCann’s fictional life of Rudolf Nureyev is one of my favorite dance books: DANCER.)

Here’s my NPR review of FORGOTTENNESS by Ukrainian writer Tanja Maljartschuk (translated by Zenia Tompkins). Given my obsession with the mystery of time, this novel really spoke to me. The author explores Ukrainian national identity and her personal “forgottenness” in haunting prose. My take: “Forgottenness, it seems, applies to both individuals and national identities. By the end, the relentlessness of time and forgottenness become congruent.” Here’s where to find the book.

Continuing on the subject of cross-pollination that I’ve discussed in my last two newsletters, I listened to an extraordinary rendering of painting into prose in Norwegian Nobel winner Jon Fosse’s SEPTOLOGY. These 7 short books initially appear dense and repetitive. Fosse brings the reader inside the mind of one character, Asle, who is actually multiple versions of the same character through time, often doubled at the exact same time. The audio version helped clarify the different versions of Asle. I bought the paper version so I could spend more time with this amazing writer.

What blew my mind were Fosse’s insights into how a painter thinks and creates, his views on spirituality and G-d, his observation and celebration of the ordinary, his encapsulation of the multiple sides of the main character, and his realistic depiction of how a person thinks.

I am happy to share my friend Judith Lindbergh’s sweeping Central Asian epic AKMARAL, featuring a brave and skillful woman warrior. Akmaral is coming out this spring. You can pre-order it here.

Finally, I had a deep and meaningful discussion with Peter Riehl on his podcast Chills & Wills. Peter is a high school teacher who must be beloved by his students. You can listen to our conversation here: https://t.co/BquYoD4A37.

Super excited about participating in the London Jewish Literary Foundation’s Book Week with author Amanda Craig and moderator and playwright Samantha Ellis on March 10. If you’re in London please come! Here’s the link for tickets.

Wishing you and yours well.

Love, Martha