City of Laughter

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A rich and riveting debut spans four generations of Eastern European Jewish women, bound by blood, secrets, and the fantastical visitation of a shapeshifting stranger over 100 years. The narrative follows a young queer woman grappling with generational secrets as she uncovers her family's origins, revealing a lineage shaped by desire. Ropshitz, Poland, once known as the City of Laughter, serves as the backdrop. The story begins with an 18th-century badchan, a holy jester, who receives a mysterious visitor, bringing much-needed laughter to the town and triggering events that will echo through the century. In the present, Shiva Margolin is reeling from the heartbreak of her first queer love and mourning her father's death while struggling to connect with her guarded mother, who spends her time at a funeral home. As a student of Jewish folklore, Shiva seizes the chance to visit Poland, hoping to unravel her family's mysteries by walking in her great-grandmother Mira's footsteps, a figure shrouded in silence. What she discovers forces her to confront her past, future, and present. Electric and intimate, the narrative weaves between reality and a tapestry of Jewish folklore, exploring how far one can stray from the stories that shape us without losing them entirely.