Join us for a launch event for Temim Fruchter’s debut novel, CITY OF LAUGHTER. Temim will read from the book and be joined in conversation with friend and local author Emma Copley Eisenberg. H&H is always thrilled to welcome creative comrades, in art and IRL!
About the Book:
Ropshitz, Poland was once known as the City of Laughter. As this story opens, an 18th century badchan, a holy jester whose job is to make wedding guests laugh, receives a visitation from a mysterious stranger—bringing the laughter the people of Ropshitz desperately need, and triggering a sequence of events that will reverberate across the coming century.
In the present day, Shiva Margolin, recovering from the heartbreak of her first big queer love and grieving the death of her beloved father, struggles to connect with her guarded mother, who spends most of her time at the local funeral home. A student of Jewish folklore, Shiva seizes an opportunity to visit Poland, hoping her family’s mysteries will make more sense if she walks in the footsteps of her great-grandmother Mira, about whom no one speaks. What she finds will make her question not only her past and her future, but also her present.
Electric and sharply intimate, CITY OF LAUGHTER zigzags between our universe and a tapestry of real and invented Jewish folklore, asking how far we can travel from the stories that have raised us without leaving them behind.
A small sampling of the praise heaped upon Temin’s debut…
“With prose that is erudite and alive, this fantastic debut novel explores queer love, first heartbreak, the loss of parents, and the deeply human desire for ancestral connection.”
—Booklist
“City of Laughter is a gorgeous and full-hearted exploration of inheritance, grief, desire, and connection . . . A sharply observed, tenderly complex, and wildly delightful debut by an original and impressive new voice.”—Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections
“City of Laughter has the sparkle and fire of something truly rare. Deeply developed and carefully crafted, this novel is chock full of wit and tenderness and an incredible amount of heart . . . Without question, City of Laughter is one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read.”—Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth
Author Bios
Temim Fruchter is a queer nonbinary writer who was raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish household. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland, and has received first prize in short fiction from both American Literary Review and New South.
Emma Copley Eisenberg is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel, Housemates, will be published by Hogarth on May 28, 2024, and she is also the author of the hybrid nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl which was named a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice of 2020 and nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Bouchercon Award among other honors. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts.