Sunday, September 21
4:00 pm
Elisa Albert
The Book of Dahlia
$9, Discounted Member Price $6

Elisa Albert’s poignant and darkly comic first novel follows the life of Dahlia Finger, a twenty-nine-year old, single, unemployed and depressed Jewish American Princess whose life is upturned when she suffers a grand mal seizure which leads to a biopsy and the diagnosis of a malignant, cancerous tumor (level four) in her left temporal lobe.

Dahlia, forced to face her own mortality, warily implements the questionably titled self-help book It’s Up to You: The Cancer To-Do List. She obsessively analyzes the scattered and various heartbreaks, disappointments, rages and regrets that comprise what she had previously thought of as her life “so far.” An acerbically funny, fast-paced and poignant narrative, Albert’s debut novel ultimately ends up being more life-affirming than any self-help book could ever hope to be.

“Elisa Albert has the unique gift of making bedmates out of humor and heartbreak. The Book of Dahlia is wonderful.”
-Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan

Elisa Albert received an MFA in fiction from Columbia University, where she is now an adjunct assistant professor of creative writing. She is a fiction editor for Nextbook and editor-at-large for Jewcy.com.

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Read our interview with Elisa Albert