“Stories of Exile” reading groups at S.F. Public Library

If you enjoy some history in your fiction, spend an hour hashing out the details of—and the history behind—Jacob Glatstein’s The Glatstein Chronicles. On the eve of World War II, Glatstein traveled from his home in the U.S. to the bedside of his dying mother in Poland, and his novelization of that journey offers a unique insight into another era that bears a sometimes too-striking resemblance to our own.

The Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial branch of the San Francisco Public Library is one of more than two dozen libraries across the United States participating in the Yiddish Book Center’s “Stories of Exile” Reading Groups for Public Libraries program series. Meant to engage teens and adults in thinking about experiences of displacement, migration, and diaspora, the program series will include three books of Yiddish literature in translation paired here in San Francisco with three books by California LGBTQIA+ authors exploring those themes. 

The next installment of the series will be the afternoon of Sunday, August 27 through existing book clubs at the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial branch library, with discussion of The Glatstein Chronicles by Jacob Glatstein, direct from the Yiddish Book Center. In honor of this being the Harvey Milk Memorial branch of the library, our companion selections are drawn from the rich diversity of writing produced by LGBTQIA+ authors.  

Here’s a link to the Reading Resources for this title prepared by the Yiddish Book Center. The Glatstein Chronicles is available as an ebook on SFPL’s hoopla subscription, and physical copies can be picked up at the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial branch. 

All six books in the series grapple with questions of homelands, journeys, identity, and belonging. Librarian-facilitated discussions will offer readers an opportunity to explore each book, and for those participating in more than one discussion across the series, a chance to consider the similarities and differences in perspective and experience revealed across multiple books. 

This is a hybrid event. Registration is required for Zoom attendance. In-person attendance does not require registration.