The EmptyNesters are excited to kick off their schedule of author events by welcoming author Rachel Barenbaum to join us via Zoom to discuss her latest book, Atomic Anna.

Friday, October 21 at 11:00 am on Zoom.

This program is free and open to everyone, but RSVP is required.

RSVP HERE

Click here to purchase this book through WHC’s Mitzvah Mall.

About the Book:

From the author of A Bend in the Stars, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past.

Three brilliant women.

Two life-changing mistakes.

One chance to reset the future.

In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist Anna Berkova is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. It’s the exact moment she tears through time—and it’s an accident. When she opens her eyes, she’s landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly’s daughter Raisa, and put their family’s future on a better path.

In ’60s Philadelphia, Molly is coming of age as an adopted refusenik. Her family is full of secrets and a past they won’t share. She finds solace in comic books, drawing her own series, Atomic Anna, and she’s determined to make it as an artist. When she meets the volatile, charismatic Viktor, their romance sets her life on a very different course.

In the ‘80s, Raisa is a lonely teen and math prodigy, until a quiet, handsome boy moves in across the street and an odd old woman shows up claiming to be her biological grandmother. As Raisa finds new issues of Atomic Anna in unexpected places, she notices each comic challenges her to solve equations leading to one impossible conclusion: time travel. And she finally understands what she has to do.

As these remarkable women work together to prevent the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century, they grapple with the power their discoveries hold. Just because you can change the past, does it mean you should?

About the Author:

Rachel’s debut nov­el is A Bend In The Stars. It has been named a New York Times Sum­mer Read­ing Selec­tion and a Barnes & Noble Dis­cov­er Great New Writ­ers selec­tion. It is also a Boston Globe Best­seller. Rachel’s sec­ond nov­el, Atom­ic Anna, is forth­com­ing from Grand Cen­tral (2022). Rachel is a pro­lif­ic writer and review­er for the LA Review of Books, the Tel Aviv Review of Books and Dead­Dar­lings. She is an Hon­orary Research Asso­ciate at the Hadas­sah-Bran­deis Insti­tute and a grad­u­ate of GrubStreet’s Nov­el Incu­ba­tor. She is also the founder of Debut Spot­light and the Debut Edi­tor at A Mighty Blaze. In a for­mer life, she was a hedge fund man­ag­er and a spin instruc­tor. She has degrees from Har­vard in Busi­ness, and Lit­er­a­ture and Phi­los­o­phy. She lives in Brook­line, MA.