and I just finished writing a novel! Tentatively entitled CANTOR GABI OF WEST END AVENUE, it’s about a thirty-year-old woman cantor named Gabi Rosengarten. Here’s the gist: Gabi, a caretaker by instinct, is still reeling from the loss of the loving grandparents who raised her, the depressed younger sister she cared for, and the synagogue to which she devoted her professional life, when her semi-estranged mother suffers an incapacitating injury that requires Gabi to move into her Upper West Side apartment. Gabi’s first step in putting her fractured life back together is to start an informal prayer group in the high-rise. Over the course of a year, we follow Gabi’s journey with this makeshift congregation of eight women and two men, each of whom has their own hidden wounds, as they process their trauma, find unanticipated connections, and discover renewed purpose and joy.
The manuscript as currently written is both a love song to Jewish tradition, cooking, and music—complete with recipes and sheet music—and a story of overcoming grief, navigating complicated relationships, and healing wounds.
While my new full-length work searches for a home, I thought I’d treat you to selected samples of my shorter fiction. Check out the WRITING/FICTION tab for three short stories I have published over the past few years.
And happy springtime to all!
