Odessa, Odessa: A Novel

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

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Description

KEY SELLING POINTS: The majority of historical fiction buyers are women interested in stories about family and fulfillment.
The book subject will appeal to the Jewish niche market.
Jewish readers are represented by education not population, with special interest in stories of identity and heritage. (2008 BEA Jewish Book Panel at BookExpo America, quoting Daisy Maryles, executive editor of Publishers Weekly.)
AUDIENCE: All readers, especially women, ages 25-60 and those of Jewish heritage, which is a market of millions and a high percentage share the novels history.
About 5 million people now in the US are Jewish by religion, descent or affinity (*2013 Pew Research Survey).
Over 2 million of the 9 million immigrants in the major wave (1881 to1914) were Eastern European Jews from the Pale of Settlement, a group with the lowest (7%) return rate of any immigrant sector. (**Jewish Womens Archive)
40% were women intent on raising families (58% were urban and skilled in garment and industrial trades) and many descendants share the novels depiction of this history. (**Jewish Womens Archive).
Book club members and readers
Readers of Jewish literature

Reviews

"The vivid events and rich details of the intricate story are compelling and important--immigrants like the Kolopskys helped make America into the land readers recognize today (Israel, too). Readers should understand more of their world at the end of this engrossing novel than they did when they began it . . .A complex but rewarding epic of family ties, fading memories, and immigrants who--through hard work and luck--better the lives of their progeny." --Kirkus Reviews "Grounded in meticulous reconstruction of time and place and rich with memorable characters--a story with an evocative echo of biblical sibling rivalry--we enjoy decades of an immigrant family and a revelation when American sisters travel to Israel to meet a distant cousin and share histories that propelled their long-estranged kinfolk through time and tumult." Belle Elving, Writer, Development at National Public Radio "Artson's mastery over the details and nuances of the lives she creates, and her sense of the history that surrounds them, show her to be a writer of depth and sensitivity." --Melanie Sperling, Professor Emerita, University of California, Riverside "Odessa, Odessa is a vivid immigrant journey of tragedy and triumphs that keeps us engaged until the unexpected and tearful, but optimistic and poignant, ending." --Dr. Linda Tucker, best-selling author of At a Crossroads: Finding the Right Psychotherapist and host of the podcast Challenge Your Thinking "As Artson lovingly shakes the family tree, easily-relatable relatives fall out that readers will fall in love with. A visual writer, she creates scenes worthy of a movie adaptation." --Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle Senior Movie Correspondent "This story of family exodus into the wider world illuminates both the cultural and political freedoms and constraints that shape and re-shape the quiet dignity of ordinary and striving lives." --Sandra Butler, co-author of It Never Ends: Mothering Middle-Aged Daughters "Barbara Artson's novel speaks to the human spirit, and to its resilience and courage under oppression....A story from 100 years ago, Odessa, Odessa is a haunting reminder of the struggles endured by refugees--even in the twenty-first century." --Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun, chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressive, and author of Revolutionary "This far-reaching novel of epic proportions chronicles three generations of a Jewish family: from the shtetl near Odessa in Western Russia, to an immigrant community in New York, and finally on a journey to Israel in 1996 to meet long-lost cousins and solve an enduring family mystery. Artson vividly evokes the immigrant experience of coming through Ellis island and trying to create a new life in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. A poignant story, full of unforgettable characters and rich historical details." --Barbara Ridley, author of When It's Over "This passionately and artfully told tale reminds us of the courage of people who leave their past, their families, their culture and their lives behind for the hope and promise of a new world, the America that was, and remains, a beacon of freedom, opportunity and hope to dreamers world-wide." --Frederick R. Levick, CEO, Ramah Darom

Author Bio

Barbara Artson is a retired psychoanalyst who calls San Francisco her home. She regularly contributes essays and reviews of films and books to professional journals. In addition to a PhD in psychology, she holds BA and MA degrees in English literature, and taught Shakespeare as a graduate student while also completing the unfinished Dickens novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, years before the musical production on Broadway. Like Dora in Odessa, Odessa, Artsons mother stitched elastic to the waistbands of womens bloomers. Visit her at www.barbaraartsonauthor.com.