I’m originally from New York but have lived in Portugal for the last 33 years. I write my novels in English and my children’s books in Portuguese. As anyone who reads my latest novel will discover, I have been greatly influenced the mythology and mystical traditions of various religions, especially Judaism (kabbalah). Happily, I discovered early on that I adore writing about people who have been systematically persecuted and silenced. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment to explore taboo subjects and topics that others would prefer to forget or conceal. When I’m not working on a book, I like to garden and travel.
Almost all the survivors of the Holocaust have now died, which makes it more important than ever that we pass on knowledge about this incomparably brutal crime against humanity – and do our best to prevent future genocides.
Survival in Auschwitzis a highly detailed, profoundly disturbing, and, in the end, intensely moving account of Italian chemist Primo Levi’s eleven months in the most notorious of the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz.
If you wish to understand what the Holocaust meant to its victims – and how the prisoners did their heroic best to resist dehumanization, hopelessness, and death – you would do well to start with this important work.
The true and harrowing account of Primo Levi’s experience at the German concentration camp of Auschwitz and his miraculous survival; hailed by The Times Literary Supplement as a “true work of art, this edition includes an exclusive conversation between the author and Philip Roth.
In 1943, Primo Levi, a twenty-five-year-old chemist and “Italian citizen of Jewish race,” was arrested by Italian fascists and deported from his native Turin to Auschwitz. Survival in Auschwitz is Levi’s classic account of his ten months in the German death camp, a harrowing story of systematic cruelty and miraculous endurance. Remarkable for its simplicity, restraint,…
In this deeply disturbing novel, an elderly and despotic farmer named Larry Cook decides to give joint ownership of his 1000-acre farm in Iowa to his three daughters, although the youngest, Caroline, objects to this arrangement and is soon disinherited.
In the emotional wake of this family conflict, long-hidden revelations about how Cook sexually abused his two eldest daughters – Ginny and Rose – come to light. As the old tyrant’s mind and body deteriorate, Ginny and Rose run the farm as best they can and share their painful memories with each other.
Will they be able to make peace with a past that continually threatens their emotional well-being? And dare they continue running an enterprise that reminds them every day of their brutal father and damaged childhoods?
This powerful twentieth-century reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear centers on a wealthy Iowa farmer who decides to divide his farm among his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of his will, which sets in motion a chain of events that brings dark truths to light. Ambitiously conceived and stunningly written, A Thousand Acres spins the most fundamental themes of truth, justice, love, and pride into a universally acclaimed masterpiece.
Carlo Levi was a physician and writer from the northern Italian city of Turin, but in 1935 he was banished to the desperately poor Lucania region of southern Italy because of his opposition to the Fascist government led by Benito Mussolini.
Levi’s account of how he suddenly found himself a foreigner in his own country and how he was able to overcome the trauma of separation from his family and loss of his profession – and forge deep friendships with the local peasants and villagers – is one of the most beautiful and touching books I’ve ever read.
'There should be a history of this Italy, a history outside the framework of time, confining itself to that which is changeless and eternal, in other words, a mythology. This Italy has gone its way in darkness and silence, like the earth, in a sequence of recurrent seasons and recurrent misadventures. Every outside influence has broken over it like a wave, without leaving a trace.'
So wrote Carlo Levi - doctor, painter, philosopher, and man of conscience - in describing the land and the people of Lucania, where he was banished in 1935, at the start of the Ethiopian war,…
World War I caused 20 million deaths and left 21 million wounded.
Soldiers who survived the gas attacks and trench warfare often returned to societies eager to forget the atrocities of the conflict and move on. Remarque’s insightfully written novel details the struggles of three German soldiers who return home only to discover that they may have no place in a nation that has learned almost nothing from what they regard as a senseless and immoral war.
In May of 1933, this novel and the rest of Remarque's writing were declared “unpatriotic” by the Nazi dictatorship and all his novels were banned.
After surviving several horrifying years in the inferno of the Western Front, a young German soldier and his cohorts return home at the end of WW1. Their road back to life in civilian world is made arduous by their bitterness about what they find in post-war society. A captivating story, one of Remarque's best.
This comic, clever, and subversive work is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The main character, Lucius, makes an error while using a witch’s balm to change himself into a bird and ends up – to his great despair – transformed into an ass. While being passed on to different owners, he is whipped and cursed and nearly butchered for his meat, learning first-hand how cruel humans can be to their fellow creatures, which is why I regard this to be the first work written in defense of animal rights. Will Lucius find a way to change back into a man?
You’ll simply have to read this captivating 1800-year-old work to find out!
Written towards the end of the second century AD, The Golden Ass tells the story of the many adventures of a young man whose fascination with witchcraft leads him to be transformed into a donkey. The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner - encountering a desperate gang of robbers and being forced to perform lewd 'human' tricks on stage - until the Goddess Isis finally breaks the spell and Lucius is initiated into her cult. Apuleius' enchanting story has inspired generations of writers such as Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Keats with its dazzling combination of allegory, satire, bawdiness and…
The Incandescent Threads is about two charismatic cousins – Benni and Shelly Zarco – who are the only Holocaust survivors in their family. Through six long chapters – each narrated by a different person – I explore the wondrous and lasting influence they have had on their families and dearest friends. In part, I wanted to explore how we often underestimate the deep effect we have on the people around us and the strategies that victims of trauma adopt to avoid passing on their suffering to loved ones. In summarizing the plot of the novel, Publishers Weekly wrote: “This is a richly drawn, original portrayal of tenacity and sacrifice.” The Incandescent Threads was a finalist for one of the National Jewish Book Awards.
I’ve always been fascinated by group dynamics, large and small. Why things functioned well, why they didn’t. It’s possible my ability to empathize and use humor as a consensus-builder is the reason I was elected president of a homeowners association, a music production association, and even an agricultural group. Books were not particularly involved in this fascination! But in recent years, experiencing the breakdown of civility and trust in our political and cultural discourse, I’ve taken a more analytical view of the dynamics. These books, in their very different ways, have taught me lessons about life, understanding those with different beliefs, and finding ways to connect and move forward.
We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike.
My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and modern-day causes of our nation's divisive state. It then proposes easy-to-understand solutions—an action plan for our elected leaders and citizens as well. Rather than a scholarly treatment of a complex topic, the book challenges us to take the obvious steps required of those living in a free democracy. And it…
Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation
Lyle Greenfield's "Uniting the States of America―A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation" is a work of nonfiction and opinion. Incorporating the lessons of history and the ideas and wisdom of many, it is intended as both an educational resource and a call-to-action for citizens concerned about the politically and culturally divided state of our Union. A situation that has raised alarm for the very future of our democracy.
First, the book clearly identifies the causes of what has become a national crisis of belief in and love for our country. How the divisiveness and hostility rampant in our political…
