If you’ve got a hankering for something familiar but different, and you’re available this evening, head over to Burke’s Book Store around 5:30 p.m.
There you’ll find a reading and book signing with Steve Stern, a prolific author whose latest novel is A Fool’s Kabbalah (Melville House, $19.99 paperback).
As the press release describes it: In the ruins of postwar Europe, the world’s leading expert on the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism goes on a hair-raising journey to recover sacred books stolen by the Nazis. The novel features numerous real-life historic figures, reimagines Gershom Scholem’s quest and how it sparked in him the desire to realize the legacy of his dear friend, the brilliant philosopher Walter Benjamin. The novel intertwines the stories of these quixotic characters, who, though poles apart, complement one another in their tragi-comic struggles to oppose the supreme evil of history, using only the weapons of humor and a little magic.
Memphis is Stern’s hometown and many of his works are steeped in the Bluff City. Kabbalah not so much, but Stern’s rich imagination is always at work, no matter where the action takes place. He’s the author of several short story collections, including The Wedding Jester (winner of the National Jewish Book Award), Isaac and the Undertaker’s Daughter (winner of a Pushcart Writer’s Choice Award and an O. Henry Prize), and Lazar Malkin Enters Heaven (winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish American fiction). He has also written three novels and two books for children. He teaches creative writing at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Book reading and signing by Steve Stern, Thursday, March 13th, 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Burke’s Book Store, 936 Cooper Street.