Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
TODAY IS MY 75TH BIRTHDAY! A midrash from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810) says, “The day you were born is the day God decided the world could not exist without you.” I do my best to figure out what the world needs from me and to provide it, with kindness and creativity.
My Goodreads and Amazon review of How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness by Jessica Bell (Rating 5) – A Meditation on Mortality in a Vividly Imagined Future. Jessica Bell transcends the constrictions of most dystopian novels with a vividly imagined story that ultimately asks why we are put on earth and what our obligations are to ourselves – and especially to others — before we leave it. Icasia surprises herself, and the reader, as she evolves from being a shiftless “tatter” to a caring person. Bell’s futuristic setting is layered with an inventiveness that simultaneously evokes recognition and inspires awe. Her complex characters struggle with love in its many manifestations: parental, filial, romantic, platonic. They confront painful emotions: longing, loss, and despair. As a writer myself, (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire how Bell deftly juggles these elements. Her prose turns positively poetic at the end as she takes on the daunting challenge of defining something as elusive as “happiness” without sounding trite or treacly. If you want to know how you too can touch happiness, be touched by the wisdom in this book.
I’m happy to announce that Vine Leaves Press will publish my next novel, One Person’s Loss, which asks whether the marriage of young German Jewish refugees can survive their clashing personalities and the traumas of the Holocaust. Set in Brooklyn from 1937 to 1951, Petra and Erich Wedler’s parents send them to America to start a family before the Nazis systematically decimate their community. The novel is told from both perspectives, as the couple find themselves at odds over losses — a miscarriage, the abrupt end of a job, the slaughter of loved ones. Confronting birth and death, their relationship seesaws until a final crisis tests their ability to sustain a balance and stay together. The book is due out in September 2022. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
I’m doing a virtual reading of my new novel, The Great Stork Derby, at Literati Bookstore on December 1, 2021 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Author and colleague Danielle LaVaque-Manty will also interview me, followed by a Q and A with online participants. The event is free. No preregistration is required and you can join the Zoom webinar from anywhere. Go to the Literati event page and click the link on the page to join the event.
You can also order copies of The Great Stork Derby from Literati, as well as copies of my other novels, using the “Add to Cart” feature on that page. Support a great independent bookstore.
The Great Stork Derby, based on a bizarre chapter in Toronto’s history, asks whether an overbearing father deserves the chance to make amends with his alienated offspring. Widower Emm Benbow, who 50 years ago pressured his late wife to win a contest by having many babies, must now move in with one of his many children or go to a dreaded old age home. As he lives with each child in turn, Emm discovers that the true value of fatherhood is not measured in big prizes, but in small rewards.
Read more about the “bad dad” in The Great Stork Derby in NOVELS. See NEWS for information about other upcoming events. I look forward to “seeing” you at the event. Thanks for your interest and support.
I’m pleased to report that I was named a semi-finalist in the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award for my story collection Women, Working. Visit the Black Lawrence Press website for the list of finalists and semi-finalists .
About the book: The fourteen stories collected in Women, Working dramatize women’s ongoing fight to balance work and family, intimacy and independence, tradition and progress. Spanning two centuries, the narratives highlight a forward march impeded by social upheaval, physical and psychological assault, and patriarchal resistance. The women — including an 1820 mill worker, a 1911 Triangle fire survivor, a Depression packhorse librarian, a chicken catcher in feminism’s early days, a contemporary trucker — are notably different, yet they share an unsinkable spirit, unflagging determination, and unwavering peer support.
Click on SHORT STORIES to read more.
The unexpected good news encourages me to submit the collection elsewhere. Wish me luck!
My Goodreads and Amazon review of Inseparable: A Never-Before Published Novel by Simone de Beauvoir (Rating 4) – Sartre Was Wrong! Inseparable, a heretofore unpublished novel by Simone de Beauvoir, is worth reading for Margaret Atwood’s introduction alone. There readers learn that de Beauvoir decided not to publish the book after the “great” Jean Paul Sartre dismissed its focus on the lives of young women as uninteresting and unworthy compared to existentialism’s significant themes. Sartre was wrong. The book IS indeed about the search for a raison d’être, among women living within the confines of religious, social, and intellectual expectations of post-WWI France. What transforms the book from didacticism into a moving novel is the story of the intense love the narrator Sylvie feels for her schoolmate Andrée, a lively rebel who is nevertheless bound by duty to her mother, social class, and God. The characters are barely disguised versions of de Beauvoir herself and her childhood friend Zaza. The novel captures the asexual passion that women carry for their girlfriends. Any woman who has been devastated by the end of such a relationship — whether from an irreparable rift, diverging lives, or death — will understand the enormity of the lingering fixation on the beloved and the pain of losing her. As a writer of historical fiction (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire how the picture of a particular place and time is balanced with universal portraits of unforgettable individuals. Just as Andrée (Zaza) stayed with Sylvie (Simone) for the rest of her life, so will the friendship between these inseparable girls live on in readers.
Thank you to Booksweet Bookstore in Ann Arbor for hosting the launch of The Great Stork Derby on November 5, 2021. I was one of four authors who read from their work to a capacity but socially-distanced and masked audience. People were intrigued by the novel’s bizarre but true premise, and asked thoughtful questions about the book and the writing life. Read more about the “bad dad” in The Great Stork Derby in NOVELS. Next up is a virtual reading at Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, open to all, on December 1, 2021. See NEWS for details about this and other upcoming events.
The Great Stork Derby received a laudatory write-up in the latest issue of Historical Novel Review. Here’s an excerpt from the review: “Based on a true event, this is a touching and poignant look at family life and how it is never too late to effect change.” Read the full review in the November 2021 issue of Historical Novel Review. Read more about The Great Stork Derby in NOVELS and buy it at your favorite bookstore or order the book online. If you enjoyed this book, and my other novels, I’d be grateful if you wrote your own review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Thanks so much!
My short story “Housewidow” is now online at The Woven Tale Press, 2021, Volume IX, No. 9. Set during the post-WWII housing shortage, “Housewidow” portrays how a third-grader’s world is upended when her family is evicted after her father’s uncharacteristic outburst against their demanding landlady. Read more in SHORT STORIES.
When Spanish flu cases spiked in 1918, then as now, revelers were warned not to trade their health-saving masks for Halloween masks. Street celebrations and indoor parties were prohibited. People were reminded that dancing was nonessential and that blowing horns spread germs and disrupted the sleep of the sick. State and city bans may have curtailed those seeking treats, but the number of tricks rose. Dallas police, for example, reported overturned bread boxes, an absconded horse, and a stolen piano. Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family during WWI (see NOVELS).
