Prospect Heights

Brooklyn BookBeat: Nathan Englander to speak at Brooklyn Public Library

March 15, 2013 By Samantha Samel Brooklyn Daily Eagle
nathan_englander_800px.jpg
Share this:

Brooklyn-based writer Nathan Englander will be appearing at the Brooklyn Public Library on Saturday, March 16, to discuss his latest book, a collection of stories titled “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.” The book explores American-Israeli relations, as well as tensions that erupt over the meaning of modern Judaism. 

Englander’s title, taken from writer Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” evokes the sensitive subject of the Holocaust, which Englander spent much time thinking about throughout his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. The subject permeated his life at home and at school, and he infuses his new text with many of his experiences growing up in the shadow of such horrors. In the title story, Englander’s characters play a game in which they must ponder who would hide them if a second Holocaust occurred. 

At Saturday’s event, Englander will discuss his book with public radio talk show host Leonard Lopate. The discussion will begin at 4 p.m. at the Dweck Center (located at 10 Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Heights).

Nathan Englander is the author of two previous books: the internationally bestselling story collection “For the Relief of Unbearable Urges” and the novel “The Ministry of Special Cases.”  His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among other publications. Englander was selected by The New Yorker as one of “20 Writers for the 21st Century,” and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN/Malamud Award, the Bard Fiction Prize, and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

Subscribe to our newsletters


Leave a Comment


Leave a Comment