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Falmouth Forum Series 2007-2008
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Author Geraldine Brooks
Photo credit: Randi Baird
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Herman Epstein Endowed Lecture
"Making Fiction from Fact: The Writing of People of the Book"
January 25, 2008 - Lillie Auditorium, 7:30 PM
Lecture is free and open to the public.
Geraldine Brooks, Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel March. Author's website
Copies of People of the Book will be available for sale in the Lillie Auditorium lobby before and after the lecture. A book signing will follow the lecture.
Abstract:
In 1996, Hanna Heath, a young Australian book conservator has been called to handle the job of a lifetime: analysis of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a priceless six-hundred-year-old Jewish prayer book that has been salvaged from the destroyed Bosnian library by a courageous librarian. Very little is known about this legendary book. Its provenance and the identity of the artist whose stunning illustrations grace its pages, have long been debated. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of artifacts in its centuries' old folios—an insect wing, wine and salt stains, a white hair—she becomes determined to unlock the book's mysteries. As she seeks the counsel of a wide network of contacts from all over the world, from lab technicians to the lions of her trade, the narrative plunges us into the exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book's epic journey from its creation to its salvation.
In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim librarian risks his life to protect it. In Vienna in 1894, a sick and penniless bookbinder barters with it as the only valuable object in his possession. In Venice in 1609, an ecclesiastical censor saves the book in a fit of rage and personal anguish. In Barcelona in 1492, the family of the scribe who wrote the text is nearly destroyed by the soldiers of the inquisition. And in Seville in 1480, a slave's striking portraits are immortalized forever.
Hanna's investigation enables her to expose a nefarious international cover up and offers her a second chance at lasting romance. Intricate, vivid, and utterly engrossing, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur, vividly realized characters, and electrifying intrigue.
Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Geraldine Brooks was for eleven years a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, where her beats included some of the world’s most troubled areas, including Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East. Her fiction debut, Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague, was published in 10 countries and was a 2001 Notable Book of the Year for the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. For her second novel, March, Brooks was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. She is also the author of two acclaimed works of nonfiction, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, and Foreign Correspondence: A Penpal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over. Born and raised in Australia, she lives in Martha’s Vineyard with her husband, the author Tony Horwitz, and their son.
Admission to this Falmouth Forum presentation is free and open to the public. A buffet dinner is available before the lecture at 6:00 p.m. in the Swope Center located near the auditorium. Dinner tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance at either Eight Cousins Children’s Books, Main Street, Falmouth, or at the MBL’s Communications Office in the Candle House in Woods Hole. Dinner seats are limited and tickets are only available until they sell out or until 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 22. For more information, contact the MBL Communications Office at: (508) 289-7423 or
Herman T. Epstein Endowed Memorial Lectureship
Dr. Herman T. Epstein was born in Portland, Maine, to Russian immigrants. He earned a bachelors’ degree in physics from the University of Michigan and a master’s from Duke University.
During World War II he met his wife, Doris E. Wright of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; they were married for nearly 60 years. Throughout the war Dr. Epstein worked in hydrodynamics research and development with NASA in Cleveland. He then returned to Michigan to complete his doctorate in physics, eventually becoming a professor of biophysics at Brandeis University.
During the course of his career, Dr. Epstein published dozens of papers and two books on the subjects of mind, brain, and education. He was dedicated to the problem of how to improve education and how to improve the performance of children in school. Dr. Epstein designed courses in “science for non-scientists” at the high school and college levels. His theories of brain development have been used in creating early intervention programs in several countries, and in middle school curriculum development in the US. He enjoyed learning, thinking about new material, and teaching people of all ages. During retirement he worked at the MBL on learning and the retrieval of learning in the marine nudibranch, Hermissenda.
Dr. Epstein is fondly remembered for his work on the creation of the Falmouth Forum program. In 1988 MBL Director Harlyn Halvorson invited Dr. Epstein to help him develop community outreach ideas. Along with Maurice Sussman, Herman Epstein suggested a series that would “appeal to everyone” and be offered without cost as a community service. He was eager that these non-science events reach out to engage Falmouth citizens. Friends of Herman Epstein have joined together to memorialize and honor him with the establishment the Endowed Memorial Lectureship, which will sponsor a Falmouth Forum presentation in his name each year. This evening’s talk by Pulitzer prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks, is the first of these very special annual lectureships.
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