Isabelle Stamler moved to Cincinnati in the 1950s after an eventful childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., a journey the retired schoolteacher mines plentifully in her first novel, Sarah’s Ten Fingers.
Set in the early 1900s, the story traces the life of Sarah, a single mother of six who is unavoidably impacted by the upheaval in her native country’s move from Czarist Russia to the birth of the Soviet Union. Determined to escape her desperate surroundings and give her children a better life, Sarah moves the family to New York City, where this epically scoped book then moves to the equally challenging eras of the Great Depression and World War II.
Stamler reads from and discusses Sarah’s Ten Fingers at Joseph-Beth. 6 p.m. Free. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 2692 Madison Road, Norwood, 513-396-8960, josephbeth.com.
