The author of one of the country’s most-talked-about new novels also happens to be a member of the Hollins University faculty.
Associate Professor of English Elizabeth Poliner’s As Close to Us as Breathing (Lee Boudreaux Books) has been named an Amazon Best Book for March 2016 and is one of four new releases this month that W magazine calls “must reads.” Reviews have also been published or are forthcoming in The New York Times as well on NPR.org and in People, Good Housekeeping, and Washingtonian magazines.
As Close to Us as Breathing is the story of a close-knit Jewish family that strives to cope following a tragedy that occurs while summering at the Connecticut shore in 1948. Publishers Weekly calls the book “an exquisitely written investigation of grief and atonement, and an elegy for a Jewish family bound together by tradition and tribe.” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward P. Jones says, “Vivid, complex, and beautifully written, [it] brims with characters who leave an indelible impression on the mind and heart. This moving story of the way one unforgettable family struggles with love and loss shows an uncommon depth of human understanding. Elizabeth Poliner is a wonderful talent and she should be read widely, and again and again.”
In conjunction with the novel’s publication, Poliner will be appearing at the following bookstores during March and April:
Tuesday, March 15: Newtonville Books, Newton, MA, 7 p.m.
Thursday, March 17: RJ Julia Bookstore, Madison, CT, 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 19: Politics & Prose, Washington, DC, 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 20: Book Court, Brooklyn, NY, 4 p.m.
Tuesday, March 22: Longfellow Books, Portland, ME, 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 9: Op. Cit Books, Taos, NM
