Internationally renowned novelist Richard Zimler
to discuss writing fiction that explores the Holocaust and its lasting impact
Join Richard Zimler October 24 at 2 PM ET as he discusses his newest book, The Incandescent Threads, before its U.S. release this November. The Virginia Holocaust Museum and Virginia Law Foundation invite you to celebrate the launch with the best-selling author in this free virtual event.
Enjoy an exclusive sneak-peek reading from The Incandescent Threads, take part in a live Q&A with this fascinating and inspiring writer, and see why The Independent calls Zimler’s talent a “spark of genius!”
About Richard Zimler
“Zimler is an honest, powerful writer” – The Guardian
Richard Zimler was born in New York in 1956 and now resides in Porto, Portugal. His twelve novels have been translated into twenty-three languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in twelve different countries, including the United States, the UK, Australia, Brazil, Italy and Portugal. Five of his works have been nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, the richest prize in the English-speaking world, and he has won several other accolades for his fiction across Europe and North America. The Incandescent Threads is the latest in his Sephardic Cycle, an acclaimed group of independent works that explore the lives of different branches and generations of a Portuguese-Jewish family, the Zarcos. Learn more about Richard and his work here.
About The Incandescent Threads
From the acclaimed author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and The Warsaw Anagrams comes an unforgettable, deeply moving ode to solidarity, heroism and the kind of love capable of overcoming humanity’s greatest horror.
“Maybe none of us is ever aware of our true significance.”
Benjamin Zarco and his cousin Shelly are the only two members of their family to survive the Holocaust. In the decades since, each man has learned, in his own unique way, to carry the burden of having outlived all the others, while ever wondering why he was spared.
Saved by a kindly piano teacher who hid him as a child, Benni suppresses the past entirely and becomes obsessed with studying kabbalah in search of the ‘Incandescent Threads’ — nearly invisible fibers that he believes link everything in the universe across space and time. But his mystical beliefs are tested when the birth of his son brings the ghosts of the past to his doorstep.
Meanwhile, Shelly — devastatingly handsome, charming and exuberantly bisexual — comes to believe that pleasures of the flesh are his only escape, and takes every opportunity to indulge his desires. That is, until he begins a relationship with a profoundly traumatized Canadian soldier and artist who helped to liberate Bergen-Belsen — and might just be connected to one of the cousins’ departed kin.
Across six non-linear mosaic pieces, we move from a Poland decimated by World War II to modern-day New York and Boston, hearing friends and relatives of Benni and Shelly tell of the deep influence of the beloved cousins on their lives. For within these intimate testimonies may lie the key to why they were saved and the unique bond that unites them.
