Weinvited the author Jennifer Lang to join us via Zoom and she said”Yes,” but she can’t make it on Tuesday, February 6th.We are moving our meeting to Thursday, Feb. 8, @7:30 pm, via Zoom, to discuss thememoir “Places We Left Behind.”
It is 147 pages in paperback, and waspublished in September 2023. There is one copy available in the Oaklandlibrary. There are no copies available through Link+. There is a Kindle editionavailable on Amazon. If you wish to purchase the book, it would be a mitzvah tobuy it from Afikomen: https://bookshop.org/p/books/places-we-left-behind-a-memoir-in-miniature-jennifer-lang/20119514?ean=9783988320186, oranother local bookstore, rather than Amazon.
PlacesWe Left Behind: a memoir-in-miniature
“For anyonewho has ever loved deeply and been willing to take risks for the sake oflove.” Rachel Barenbaum author of Atomic Anna
WhenAmerican-born Jennifer falls in love with French-born Philippe during the FirstIntifada in Israel, she understands their relationship isn’t perfect. Both 23,both Jewish, they lead very different lives: she’s a secular tourist, he’s anobservant immigrant. Despite their opposing outlooks on two fundamentalissues-country and religion-they are determined to make it work. For the next20 years, they root and uproot their growing family, each longing for asingular place to call home. In Places We Left Behind,Jennifer puts her marriage under a microscope, examining commitment andcompromise, faith and family while moving between prose and poetry, playingwith language and form, daring the reader to read between the lines.
Bornin the San Francisco Bay Area , Jennifer Lang lives in Tel Aviv,where she runs Israel Writers Studio. Her essays have appeared in BaltimoreReview, Crab Orchard Review, Under the Sun, Ascent, Consequence, and elsewhere.A Pushcart Prize, Best of Net, and Best American Essays nominee, she holds anMFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and serves as Assistant Editor forBrevity. Often findable on her yoga mat; practicing since 1995, teaching since2003. Visit her website: israelwriterstudio.com.
