Detroit Jewish News

June 23 • 2016 51 FICTION continued on page 52 a backdrop to this story — it shapes the lives of the characters who inhabit it, for better or worse. The author's own family history inspired this debut novel and the writing pro- cess helped heal old wounds. ■ Winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, Israeli Ayelet Tsabari's debut collection of 11 tales, The Best Place on Earth: Stories (Random House), daringly takes on the complexities of Israeli life and its diaspora. Called by some a "complicated love song to Israel," the stories often focus on Israel's Mizrahi Jews searching for their place in the world. The stories are global in scope yet intimate in feel, beautifully written and emo- tionally powerful. ■ In The Book of Esther: A Novel (Tim Duggan Books), Emily Barton (Brookland) reimagines some of history's darkest period. On the steppes between the Black and Caspian seas, Esther seeks a fabled village of kabbalists who can change her into a man so that she can save her nation's existence from the Nazi threat. In the style of Cynthia Ozick and Italo Calvino, Barton invents an otherworldly uprising with a Jewish Joan of Arc at the center of it. ■ The Chosen Ones: A Novel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) takes place inside Am Spiegelgrund, a children's clinic in Vienna where hundreds of children were killed under the Nazi Regime Children's Euthanasia Program. Focusing on a child inmate and a nurse, author Steve Sem-Sandberg (The Emperor of Lies) brings readers into the experiences of the abus- ers and the abused as they under- take daily rituals of psychological and physical torment. ■ The Devil in Jerusalem (St. Martin's Press) is the eighth novel by Naomi Ragen, an American who has lived in Israel for the last 40 years and has been voted one of the three most popular authors in Israel. This novel is inspired by the true story of a man who started a dark, secret sect in Israel and corrupted a young Orthodox family. Two chil- dren are admitted to Hadassah Hospital with terrible injuries; their mother, a young American heiress, recites psalms and refus- es to answer questions. The story follows Detective Bina Tzedek as she unravels the mystery by encountering kabbalists, mystical ancient texts and horrifying cult rituals. Moshe And Asa Jennifer Lovy | Special to the Jewish News D arcee Matlen arrived at Sample Wearhouse expecting to do what she does every Thursday: sort through new shipments and help customers find clothes at her family's West Bloomfield store. She happened to be unpacking a box of T-shirts when a 4-year-old boy walked in with his mother. He said five words that inspired her to write and publish her first children's book, Moshe & Asa. Just as Sacha Aguilar and his mom, Alyssa, came into the store, the preschooler noncha- lantly said, "My best friend is 93." Matlen learned that when Sacha was 2 he met his best friend, Asa Shapiro, follow- ing a shabbat service at Congregation Beth Am in West Bloomfield. According to Aguilar, Sacha saw a man in a wheelchair and noticed he wasn't eating during the Kiddush and announced that he was going to bring him something to eat. So Sacha grabbed some cantaloupe and kichel and climbed into Shapiro's lap. This seemingly small act was the start of a weekly ritual between Sacha and Asa, both West Bloomfield residents. The two became insepa- rable at shul. Shapiro became Grandpa Asa, and Asa dubbed his friend "Moshe." Despite Shapiro's limited ability to speak following a stroke, the pair shared a special connection that the rest of the congrega- tion couldn't help but notice. "Their story captivated me," says Matlen, a West Bloomfield mom of two boys. "What makes it so special is the fact that Asa is a Holocaust survivor who at 93 is still building relation- ships. It's such a great story, and I want to get it into as many hands as possible." In addition to working in her family's clothing store, Matlen is a manifestation coach, helping clients accomplish their busi- ness and life goals. In 2011 she self-published Bask: The Dreamer's Guide to Reaching for the Stars While Realizing You Have Already Caught the Moon, written to inspire readers to appreci- ate where they are while still dreaming about the future. Four years later she published 20 Steps to Launch and Grow Your Small Business: Grow Your Etsy Shop, Multi-Level Product, Personal Brand or Service. Both are available for download on Kindle. Moshe & Asa is available on Amazon as well as online at Mosheandasa.com. According to Matlen, the book is also slated to be sold during the Jewish Community Center's annual book fair this fall. Matlen hopes to distribute the book to Jewish schools, syn- agogues and Holocaust centers around the country. She also plans to donate proceeds from book sales to charities dedi- cated to autism awareness (her son is on the autism spectrum) and Jewish causes. "All of our kids need some connection to the Holocaust before it's gone. As Sacha [now 5] gets older, his parents will teach him more about Asa's story," Matlen says. "When I think about my kids, they don't have an experience like this. Who knows what Sacha will do with that knowledge and his experience with Asa." Matlen was anxious to write their story and immediately began collaborating with Aguilar as well as Asa's son Eddie Shapiro. He liked the idea immediately: Because his par- ents survived the Holocaust but much of their family did not, he felt it was especially impor- tant for his grandchildren and his brother's grandchildren to know the story. Sacha also likes having a book written about him and his friend Asa. When Matlen approached Aguilar, it was the first time she really stopped to think about the uniqueness of their relationship. "This has been our quiet story so when Darcee asked if she could write a book about their friendship it was a little overwhelming, but very excit- ing," Aguilar says. "It's amazing how Darcee put all those years of a friendship into a story. It's not just a Holocaust story. It's about not noticing differ- ences. Asa is in a wheelchair. He doesn't walk. He doesn't talk much. Yet Sacha knows how much he loves him." Aguilar, along with Eddie, worked closely with Matlen to ensure that the author captured the essence of this unique friendship. "There is truly so much love in this story and the connection between everyone involved was incredible, including the illustrator who went out of her comfort zone to work on this project and nailed it. It was truly an honor to work with them." * The true story of a remarkable friendship. M o s h e & A s a Asa and Sacha smooch as Eddie watches. THE HOLOCAUST ■ East West Street (Alfred A. Knopf ), a moving personal detec- tive story, begins when author Philippe Sands, an international lawyer, accepts an invitation to lec- ture at Lviv University — with the intent of learning about the city, home to his maternal grandfather before the war. While there, Sands explores the personal and intellec- tual evolution of the two men who simultaneously originated the ideas of "genocide" and "crimes against humanity." ■ In In Those Nightmarish Days: The Ghetto Reportage of Peretz Opoczynski and Josef Zelkowicz (Yale University Press), editors Samuel D. Kasow and David Suchoff provide the powerful THE HOLOCAUST continued on page 52

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