Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Meryl Ain!
Writes:
If there’s one thing JoJo Lubinski wants, it’s to become a famous actress. Her fraternal twin sister, Bronka, wants a career in journalism as well as a home and family.
Complicating these dreams is their knotty family background. Their mother saved their father during the Holocaust and the family came to New York after World War II. But their father still suffers from the trauma of the Holocaust as well as losing his first family.
Both sisters are constrained by the times in which they live. JoJo faces an unplanned pregnancy in the years before Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. Bronka is faced with quotas for female students when she applies to journalism school and later discrimination in her professional life. Her friend and colleague, Brian, discovers that his father was a guard at Auschwitz.
The twins, Brian, and other characters in Shadows We Carry, grapple with their family’s ancestry, family secrets and bloodlines. Meanwhile, both young women seek to define their roles as women, and as individuals.
About:
I’m from Queens, New York, where SHADOWS WE CARRY begins and I now live on Long Island. I’ve reinvented myself several times. I’ve worked as a journalist, high school history teacher, school administrator, and non-fiction author. When I retired from the public schools, I joined a book club and began to wonder if I could write a novel. I took classes and read some books and the result was my award-winning debut novel, The Takeaway Men. Since many readers asked me to write a sequel and I wanted to continue the story, I wrote Shadows We Carry. When I’m not writing or visiting interested groups to talk about my books, I like to hang out with my husband, children, and grandchildren.
What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match:
- Is fascinated with the Post World War II era, either because you’re a Baby Boomer or are related to one
- Likes strong, complicated, conflicted characters
- Wants to see what it was like for women before they had equal rights in the U.S.
- Is interested in learning how former Nazis hid in plain sight in the U.S. after World War II
- You’re interested in learning more about children of Holocaust survivors.
What to expect if we’re compatible:
- A lot of references to American culture in the late 60s and 70s.
- A look inside the hearts and minds of children of Holocaust survivors and former Nazis,
- What it was like in NY before abortion was legal.
- A glimpse into the struggles of young women to succeed in a male-dominated world.
- An exploration of the weight of family ties.
SHADOWS WE CARRY by Meryl Ain
A Novel
In this eagerly anticipated sequel to Meryl Ain’s award-winning post-Holocaust novel The Takeaway Men, we follow Bronka and JoJo Lubinski as they find themselves on the cusp of momentous change for women in the late 1960s. With the United States in the grip of political and social upheaval, the twins and a number of their peers, including a Catholic priest and the son of a Nazi, struggle with their family’s ancestry and how much influence it has on their lives. Meanwhile, both young women seek to define their roles as women, and as individuals.
Enlightening and evocative, Shadows We Carry explores the experience of navigating deeply held family secrets and bloodlines, confusing religious identities, and the scars of World War II in the wake of revolutionary societal changes.
Fiction Family Life [SparkPress, On Sale: April 25, 2023, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781684632008 / eISBN: 9781684632015]
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About Meryl Ain
Meryl Ain is a Baby Boomer who has reinvented herself numerous times. She’s not only an author, but also a podcaster, journalist, and former teacher and school administrator. The Takeaway Men, her award-winning post-Holocaust debut novel was published in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. She challenged herself to meet virtually with book clubs and visited on zoom with more than 80. She’s also the author of two non-fiction books and the host of the podcast, People of the Book. A lifelong learner, she holds a BA from Queens College, an MA from Columbia University, and a doctorate from Hofstra University. She and her husband Stewart’s greatest joy is to hang out with their six grandchildren.
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