Discussion with the author in person on Thursday, May 18, at 6 p.m.

In the nineteenth-century Russian Empire’s Pale of Settlement, Esther Leving, a brilliant young bibliophile, chafes at male dominance, religious dogma, and antisemitism. Bernard Garfinkle, a religious Jew and the son of a vodka distiller, hides a shameful secret—in a culture that worships books, he can’t read. Despite their differences, they fall in love. Esther teaches Bernard to read, and he, in turn, builds her a bookshop. They start a family, but when ferocious pogroms target Russian Jews, they must confront violent oppression.

Vermont author Michael Freed-Thall will read from this work, share his research about the region’s Jewish history, and answer questions about the novel-writing process. Horodno Burning was recently selected as a finalist in the Independent Publishers of New England Book Awards of 2022, and is well-loved by Rockingham Library’s program coordinator Anne Dempsey. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.rockinghamlibrary.org, email programming@rockinghamlibrary.org, call the library at (802) 463-4270, or stop by the Library at 65 Westminster St. in Bellows Falls, Vt.