Publication News from My Writing Cohort

My colleague from Running Wild Press, Elan Barnehama, recently shared some great news: his second novel, Escape Route, is coming out May 4^th.

Escape Route is set in New York City during the tumultuous late 1960s. The story is told by teenager Zach, a first-generation son of Holocaust survivors and NY Mets fan, who becomes obsessed with the Vietnam War and with finding an escape route for his family for when he believes the US will round up and incarcerate its Jews. Zach meets Samm, a seventh-generation Manhattanite whose brother has returned from Vietnam with PTSD. Together they explore protest, friendship, music, faith, and love during a time littered with hope and upheaval around the globe.

Elan Barnehama author photo — Elan Barnehama, Contemporary Fiction Author

I first read Elan’s writing in the Running Wild Anthology of Stories, Vol. 2. His short story about these same characters, “Just Be,” was moving and memorable; it was based on a section of Escape Route. I’m so pleased the full story has now been told and can be read.

Here is an early review:

“Elan Barnehama has given us a powerful coming of age story set against the tumult of the 1960s, the War in Vietnam, and the power of memory and Jewish identity in a family of Holocaust survivors. This is a beautifully rendered novel, populated by unforgettable characters in an unforgettable time. Barnehama is a literary craftsman at the top of his game. Superb.”
— Frye Gaillard, author of A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s, an NPR Great Read 2018

You can order Escape Route from

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Bookshop.org

and anywhere books are sold.