Local Author Visit: Roslyn Bernstein

Join us and local author Roslyn Bernstein as she discusses her 2023 novel The Girl Who Counted Numbers:

Did Uncle Yakov, her father’s older brother, survive the Holocaust? That was the challenge given to Susan Reich, a 17-year-old American girl, by her father. Set in 1961 Jerusalem during the Adolf Eichmann trial, after years of failure in his search, it is now Susan’s turn to find out what happened to Yakov, who did not come to America with the family in 1921 and whose records were never found after the concentration camps were liberated. The Girl Who Counted Numbers brings to life two intertwined coming-of-age stories, a generation apart and an ocean apart. This historical fiction novel was heavily inspired by the seven months that Bernstein spent in Jerusalem in 1961 listening to the stories of immigrants and survivors.

Roslyn Bernstein is professor emerita of journalism and creative writing at Baruch College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She is the founding director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program at Baruch College. She has has also reported on arts and culture for various local, national, and international publications.

Bernstein grew up in Long Beach and graduated from Long Beach High School. Her previous books are Boardwalk Stories, a collection of 14 linked tales set in the years 1950 to 1970, and Engaging Art: Essays and Interviews from Around the Globe (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). She is also the co-author with the architect Shael Shapiro of Illegal Living: 80 Wooster.

The Girl Who Counted Numbers was named one of the 100 Best Books of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews and won the Goldman Prize for Debut Fiction from the Jewish Book Council.