"The power of Raphael's stories comes from his passion for telling the
truth, however painful."--Hadassah Magazine
"His characters are voices of reason, observers rather than judges. The
prose is poetic, the sex scenes sweat with passion."--Los Angeles
Times
When Lev Raphael published the controversial story collection Dancing
on Tisha B'av, he broke new ground in the publishing world. Never
before in one book had an American writer dealt with the conflicts
between homosexuality and traditional Judaism, linked the chilling mind
diseases of antisemitism and homophobia, and borne witness not only to
the legacy of Holocaust survivors but the suffering and conflicts of
their children. Winner of the prestigious Lambda Literary Award, Raphael
opened the door to a new kind of American Jewish fiction.
Secret Anniversaries of the Heart unites the best stories from
Dancing on Tisha B'av with 12 new stories, including one never before
published. Here we encounter tales of antisemitism on the college
campus, of self-hatred and body obsession, and of survivor parents whose
only response to the Holocaust is to isolate themselves, unconsciously
committing a kind of emotional suicide.
In a collection that encompasses over 25 years of his award-winning
stories, Lev Raphael proves himself a visionary like James Baldwin and
shares Anita Brookner's gift for dramatizing the pain of seemingly quiet
lives in stories that are both passionate and precise.
Lev Raphael is the author of 17 books published in a dozen
languages. A winner of the Lambda Literary Award, among many prizes, his
short works have appeared in numerous anthologies, including the
star-packed Who We Are: On Being (and Not Being) A Jewish American
Writer (Schocken/Random House). The author of a popular mystery series,
he performs all over the country and hosts a weekly book show on NPR.
