Two Jewish physicists fall in love while working on the mysterious Manhattan Project in this sweeping historical debut perfect for readers of Kate Quinn and Bonnie Garmus.
ENOLA SPELLED BACKWARDS
by Rachel Robbins
Crooked Lane, October 2024
Alice Kahn is a young Jewish physicist, one of the only female doctoral students in her class, studying with the famed Dr. Oppenheimer. An heiress, her family wants her to marry a man of her class and settle down; instead, Alice answers her country’s call to come to an unnamed city in the desert to work on a government project shrouded in secrecy.
At Los Alamos, Alice meets Caleb Fisher, a poor Orthodox Jew who has been assigned to the explosives division. Around them are other young scientists and engineers who have quietly left their university posts to come live in the desert. No one seems to know exactly what they are working on; what they do know is that it is a race, and that they must beat the Nazis in developing an unspeakable weapon. In this atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, and despite their many differences, Alice and Caleb find themselves drawn to one another.
Inspired by the author’s grandparents, and sure to appeal to fans of Good Night, Irene, ENOLA SPELLED BACKWARDS is a propulsive novel about love in desperate times, the consequences of our decisions, and the roles we play in history.
Rachel Robbins received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010. She is a tenured assistant professor at Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. Most recently, her work has appeared in Rattle and The Kenyon Review. Rachel won Rhino Poetry’s Founder’s Prize and was nominated by Rhino Poetry for the Pushcart Prize in 2015. She was nominated by Make Literary Magazine for the Pushcart Prize in 2018.Rachel won the Illinois Arts Council Agency Literary Award in 2018.
It’s 1968, and the Watry-Ridder family is feared and respected in equal measure. The local farmers seek out their water charms and the teenagers their love spells. The family’s charms and spells have long served the town, passed down through generations of witches descending from the Black Forest.
Yun is a ninety-year-old woman recounting her time growing up in the Phoenix Pencil Company in 1940s Shanghai. While Japan invades China, Yun’s cousin moves in with them, and the two develop a competitive yet loving relationship. When the government discovers their family can magically Reforge a pencil’s words, bringing its words back to life, the cousins are separated and forced into a life of betraying stories in order to survive.
In a sleepy German village, Allina Gottlieb’s life is idyllic: she works at the bookshop with her uncle, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends the weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it’s 1939, and on one fateful night, her life changes forever.
Max Bretzfeld doesn’t want to move to London.