From Dust, a Flame

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Description

Rebecca Podos, Lambda Award-winning author of Like Water, returns with a contemporary Jewish fantasy of enduring love, unfathomable loss, and the power of stories to hold us together when it seems that nothing else can.

Hannahs whole life has been spent in motion. Her mother has kept her and her brother, Gabe, on the road for as long as she can remember, leaving a trail of rental homes and faded relationships behind them. No roots, no family but one another, and no explanations.

All that changes on Hannahs seventeenth birthday when she wakes up transformed, a pair of golden eyes with knife-slit pupils blinking back at her from the mirrorthe first of many such impossible mutations. Promising that she knows someone who can help, her mother leaves Hannah and Gabe behind to find a cure. But as the days turn to weeks and their mother doesnt return, they realize its up to them to find the truth.

What they discover is a family they never knew and a history more tragic and fantastical than Hannah could have dreamedone that stretches back to her grandmothers childhood in Prague under the Nazi occupation, and beyond, into the realm of Jewish mysticism and legend.As the past comes crashing into the present, Hannah must hurry to unearth their familys secrets in order to break the curse and save the people she loves most, as well as herself.

Reviews

"From Dust, a Flame speaks to the importance of stories and how they connect us. A spellbinding tale of mystery and magic that explores grief, loss, and how the choices we make can echo across generations, this is the sort of book youll want to read again the moment you finish." Kalyn Josephson, author of the Storm Crow duology "A complicated, dark, richly woven story of generational trauma, stories, mothers and daughters, Jewish folklore, and the promises we makeand the promises we breakto protect the people we love. I was riveted from the first page to the last." Katherine Locke, award-winning author of The Girl with the Red Balloon "Smartandimaginative, deeply moving, and remarkably fun, From Dust, a Flame breathes fresh air into Jewish mythology. I loved it." Elana K. Arnold, Prinz Honor-winning author of Damsel Filled with fantasy, superstition, and folklore, and with a uniquely Jewish spin, From Dust, a Flame ventures into daunting but fascinating territory.Will command attention. Jewish Book Council

Author Bio

Rebecca Podos is the author of Lambda Literary Award-winner Like Water, The Wise and the Wicked, and The Mystery of Hollow Places. She is a graduate of the writing, literature, and publishing program at Emerson College, where she won the MFA award for best thesis. Her fiction has been published in Glimmer Train, Glyph, Paper Darts, Bellows American Review, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She is also a literary agent. She lives with her husband and two children in Connecticut. You can find her online at www.rebeccapodos.com.