KETURAH

About the Book

With thirteen Torah-true short stories that combine contemporary pain and loss with eternal answers, broken families and stolen histories with richly imagined solutions, American Jews in place and Jews all over the world, the women and men in Keturah face loss, exile, expulsion, immigration, return – every conceivable challenge to safety and survival.  From the patriarch Abraham’s retirement on a Vermont apple farm to two very different sisters meeting in the Shomron, an immigrant Galiciana’s solitary voyage to heartland America to an assimilated California Jewish family unraveling, a failed agrarian experiment to absent loved ones, silent family members to bringing dignity to Jewish inmates, archeology and biblical prophecy in Israel, Keturah encapsulates the centuries-old Jewish mixture of struggle and strife, faith and the fight for salvation.  While the people of Keturah often face unsettled, uncertain lives, by using classic Jewish wisdom and Torah as guides, they never waver in their strength, commitment, and resilience.  Whether for themselves, their families, or their futures, whether in America or in Europe or in Israel, in stories rife with both trauma and therapy, self-reliance not self-pity, the message is always and inevitably love and optimism, healing and hope, and a prayer for peace.

About the Author

Abby Mendelson is the author of three novels, Paradise Boys, Scotch and Oranges, and The Oakland Quartet, and four short-story collections, Ghost Dancer, End of the Road, Reunion, and Six Archetypal Images.  His non-fiction includes Spirit to Spirit: A Portrait of Pittsburgh Jazz, Pittsburgh Steelers Official History, Pittsburgh Steelers: Yesterday and Today, Steelers Experience, Arena: Remembering the Igloo, Pittsburgh: A Place in Time, Pittsburgh Prays: Thirty-Six Houses of Worship, among others.  A Torah-observant Jew, he has spent more than 40 years volunteering as an outreach instructor, lecturer, teacher, and Aleph Institute prison chaplain.  He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Judy.