The Newsletter of Fig Tree Books

May '26: Issue #78 --- Fredric D. Price, Founder & Publisher

NEW NOVEL FROM FIG TREE BOOKS LLC:

Crossing the Bronx, by David Hirshberg

     Crossing the Bronx is an historical literary novel set primarily in the 1950s in The Bronx. It is a modern retelling of the Jacob and Esau story from Genesis. The narrative that propels the story forward concerns the destruction of a neighborhood in the guise of progress. Jay and Eric, the sons of Ike (an Italian Jew), and Rebekeh, (a Mountain Jew), are estranged—as are their parents—and find themselves on opposite sides of a bitter struggle that pits those in power against the defenseless people of a local community.

        Eric has aligned himself with his father Ike, who by day is a cop—and at other times works surreptitiously for a mobbed-up construction company engaged in major projects transforming New York City—while his younger brother Jay is allied with his mother and with a neighborhood group fighting to preserve its very soul. Their fractious relationship speaks to the issues of how families split apart, and whether or not the pieces can ever be put back together.

           In addition to sustained tension-filled action, Crossing the Bronx is a story of romance, commitments, beliefs, and triumphs over adversities (lies, theft, murder, concealment, prejudice). Through vivid descriptions, perceptive insights, humor and sensitivity, the characters come to life to illustrate who we are, how we behave, and what causes us to change.

“CROSSING THE BRONX is about family, betrayal, and the emotions that compel brothers to cross each other in ways that are hard to forget and even harder to forgive. David Hirshberg is a master storyteller who compels you to turn the page to see what happens next. His characters come alive with colorful language that is believable regardless of differing cultural roots, economic status, generations, even neighborhoods that change from street to street. What is fascinating are the descriptions and dialogue of the women in the story…What is beautiful about David Hirshberg’s women is that they are so three-dimensional, so believable, and written with empathy and love, which is remarkable given that the author is a man.”

—Haya Molnar, author of Under a Red Sky: Memoir of a Childhood in Communist Romania

“Rarely has New York been evoked so lovingly and poignantly. The best novelists manage to capture a time and place so vividly that it becomes a character in their books. What a joy to state that what James Joyce did for Dublin, Hemingway did for Paris, and Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles, David Hirshberg has now done for The Bronx.”

—Alan Swyer, author of The Beard

David Hirshberg is also the author of My Mother's Son (2018) and Jacobo's Rainbow (2021), both of which won numerous literary awards.

JEWS OF DIFFERENT HUES: From Tennessee to Tel Aviv

via Mexico City: A Catholic African-American financier and diplomat’s journey to Judaism

“I was put on a path not knowing where it would take me, and it said walk,” said S. Fitzgerald (“Fitz”) Haney.

And so he did.

The 57-year-old Tennessee-born African-American businessman turned diplomat and “Dancing with the Stars” finalist is not your typical American-Israeli envoy.

But then again, Haney’s life story—from a religious Catholic to a practicing Jew who journeyed from the Volunteer State to Ra’anana via Puerto Rico and Mexico City—is anything but ordinary.

“It is an act of faith,” he said.

NON-FICTION BOOK: Even After Everything: How One Resilient Kibbutznik Believed in Heaven While Living Through Hell,

by Betsy Fischer

Before the disastrous final hour of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (2014)—a war that shattered his community, separated him from his family, claimed the lives of two of his closest friends, and left him a double amputee—Gadi Yarkoni had already navigated a lifetime of medical and educational challenges.  

Yet even after everything, he emerged from tragedy with a smile and a strong desire to serve. This inspirational tale explores Gadi's unique childhood, his willingness to move forward by setting "targets," and his ability to appreciate life. Whatever challenges you may face, Gadi’s journey will help you gain perspective, count your blessngs, and keep moving forward. You might even find yourself frrequently asking, “What would Gadi do?”

Betsy Frischman Fischer, M.Ed., has never been afraid to reinvent herself. A native of New Jersey, she attended Rutgers University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and obtained certifications as both an elementary teacher and a teacher of the handicapped. At Temple University, she designed and completed a master’s program centered on the inclusion of students with special needs in the performing arts—a passion that shaped her early career.

MONTHLY BLOG: Building a Future for Jewish Writers

by Howard Lovy

Before October 7, 2023, Elissa Wald was perfectly happy in her career as a ghostwriter, using her skills behind the scenes to amplify the voices of other people. “But after the massacre and the world’s response to it,” Wald said, “I hit an emotional wall and felt I couldn’t go on with it. As much as I loved my projects, I felt it wasn’t the highest and best use of my voice at this time.”

What, then, would be a better use of her time? Well, she noticed the same thing that many of us experienced. Jews were being pushed out of literary spaces. Even those of us who never wrote about Israel were told that our voices did not count. That’s when she launched the Never Alone Substack newsletter and book club.

NON-FICTION BOOK: Pass the Trauma, Please,

by Todd Diamond

Born in Queens, New York, Todd Diamond delivers narratives that are unapologetically raw and darkly humorous––a reflection of the borough that raised him. Whether it’s sordid tales from his advertising career or stories about his family’s Holocaust experiences, he resonates with those who prefer their prose served with a healthy dose of cynicism and unsweetened insight.

CHAPTER FROM A MEMOIR: Sacred Sounds, by Cantor Deborah Katchko Gray 

Growing up in a cantorial family, I knew music and prayer were powerful. I had no idea I would carry on this tradition in my own way, paving the way for women cantors and reimagining my grandfather’s cantorial music. Inspired by teachings of Elie Wiesel and a love of music, I found a spiritual home on the bima. A bit of a rebel, I saw the need for women cantors to gather and created The Women Cantors’ Network. Change is hard but necessary, and my journey includes a personal and professional path with challenges and triumphs along the way.  

My story includes moments of despair and radical ideas that resulted in change. A journey of music, memory, risk and some tragedy, combined with cantorial creativity and community building.



This fourth chapter is from my unpublished memoir, detailing the first cantorial jobs I encountered as a young woman.

Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray is a fourth generation pioneer woman cantor. She founded the Women Cantors’ Network in 1982. She is a recording artist, Jewish fiber artist, composer and writer. Her favorite role is Bubbie to 8 grandchildren. 

MEMOIR: Dickens in Brooklyn by Jay Neugeboren

Dickens in Brooklyn is a virtuoso collection of unusual, compelling essays in which Neugeboren explores experiences that have been central to his life: caring long-term for a brother with mental illness; finding and connecting with long-lost family members; a posthumous lunch with Oliver Sacks; his years as single parent to his three children; his decision as a General Motors executive trainee to violate company policy and hang out with “hourlies;” and a thwarted kiss at a teenage summer camp where he was a young Jewish man in exile among Jews. 

Neugeboren captivates the reader with stories of his brief career in the Merchant Marines and how this led to the break-up of his first serious romance; the ways Judaism did and did not inform his life; about his political activism in the civil rights and anti-war movements and how they derived from and affected his family life; about the “Dickensian” battles that marked the lives of his immediate and extended families; and about his friendships with writers (Oliver Sacks, Martha Foley), and how these affected his life and career. 

In all these essays, in exquisite and dramatic detail, he draws on his experience in ways that will enable readers to summon up and reflect on their own lives. 

Jay Neugeboren is the author of 25 books, including five prize-winning novels (The Stolen Jew, Before My Life Began,1940, Poli: A Mexican Boy in Early Texas, and The American Sun & Wind Moving Picture Company), three prize-winning books of nonfiction (Imagining Robert, Transforming Madness, and Whatever Happened to Frankie King), and four collections of award-winning stories. His stories and essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, The American Scholar, GQ, Hadassah, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and have been reprinted in more than 50 anthologies. Neugeboren lives and writes in New York City. 

Photo credit: Zack Neugeboren

PROLOGUE TO A NOVEL: The Unkept Promise, by Lana Citron

“I’m going,” she threatened, “I swear to god, I am.”

“Go on then,” I said. She’d been telling me for ages she was dying. “What are you waiting for woman? There’s the road ahead of you, Dorothy’s Yellow Brick…”

Her eyes narrowed to slits and her features took on a look of disgust. “Jaysus Hannah, you’re a piece of work,” and she told me not to be annoying her.

She looked sad, dreadful sad. I suggested we go for a walk. Nothing too expeditious, a slow meander around the back streets of London’s Saint Johns Wood, where she and my father lived. She had on her a majestic black coat. It fell to the pavement in a grand statement. She was swamped by it. Her head poked out like a peanut.

We set off at a slow pace, an awful slow pace and I tried to chivvy her along. “Come on now Mrs,” I said, “the Nazis are coming. They’ll have us if we don’t get a move on.”

“Jaysus,” she sighed, “The fucking bastard Nazis, shite-bag, brown-shirt bastards”.

Lana Citron is the author of five novels, including Sucker, Spilt Milk, and The Honey Trap, as well as two works of nonfiction. Her A Compendium of Kisses was selected as Book of the Week by The Economist. Known for her distinctive blend of wit, emotional insight, and structural play, her work is published in the US and Japan and translated into several European languages. She writes across multiple forms, from short fiction and radio drama to award-winning screenplays, including I Was the Cigarette Girl and Hannah Cohen’s Holy Communion. In 2024, her story The Cartography of a Motherland was featured in Der Veg Abhaile: An Irish Jewish Journey at the Vilna Gaon Museum in Vilnius. She has recently completed ghostwriting a celebrity memoir (forthcoming May 2026) and is currently working on her novel The Return of Annie Kaye, of which The Unkept Promise forms the prologue. She is represented in the UK by the Sarah Such Literary Agency.