Photo by Rob Liguori
Soviet-born émigré Boris Fishman, author of the novel A Replacement Life, was recently named one of BuzzFeed’s Top 20-Under-40 Debut Writers. This accomplished Princeton and New York University graduate has worked as an editor for The New Yorker and was also the recipient of a Fulbright research grant. Fishman’s debut is vividly memorable and brilliantly funny as it follows a Brooklyn-based journalist who unwittingly finds himself forging Holocaust Restitution claims for members of the elderly New York Jewish community.
The story begins with the passing of 25-year-old Slava Gelman’s beloved grandmother, a World War II survivor. Slava is devastated by the loss, not only because of his close ties to his grandmother, but because he had hoped to capture her memories in a book one day. Sadly, many of the stories of his grandmother died with her, and even his 80-year-old grandfather knows only bits and pieces of the actual events. Ironically, just days before her death, Slava’s grandmother had received a letter from the German government offering restitution for those imprisoned in labor camps, ghettos or concentration camps.
Now Slava’s grandfather wants this money. Before he knows it, Slava is using his gifts as a writer to forge “tales of woes and deceit” on behalf of numerous members of the Brooklyn Jewish community, quickly finding himself caught in a tangled web of lies, hardly able to separate fact from fiction. Before the scheme is inevitably discovered, these fictitious writings have managed to affect his day job at a prestigious New York magazine and interfere with his tumultuous love life. Told with irony, tenderness and honesty, A Replacement Life is a fascinating exploration of the complicated issues of family loyalty and personal conscience. Fishman will speak at Boswell Book Co. at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26.
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Book Happenings
Bridget Birdsall
3 p.m., March 1
Boswell Book Co.
2559 N Downer Ave.
Bridget Birdsall’s new YA novel takes an important look at teenage insecurities and gender identity. In Double Exposure, 15-year-old Alyx, who was raised as a boy, knows that something is different—she is actually a girl. Following a terrible beating by the high school bully, Alyx and her mother leave their hometown in California and move to Milwaukee for a new beginning, where Alyx can start life over as a girl. This poignant coming-of-age tale is told with delicacy and courage, highlighting one teen’s brave journey toward her authentic self.
