Kim van Alkemade
Orphan #8 is a historical novel set in 1919, about a woman who when is faced with her past, must choose between revenge and mercy. When Rachel Rabinowitz is four years old, she and her brother are orphaned and then separated. She goes from living in a crowded tenement building in New York's Lower East Side, to a Jewish orphanage where Doctor Solomon subjects her to dangerous medical experiments. She is left disfigured from harsh X-ray treatments and is harassed constantly by the rest of the orphans. When she is fifteen she runs away to Colorado in hopes of finding her brother, Sam, and discovers a family she never knew she had.
Years later, she believes she has shut all her painful memories until one day a sickly and cancer ridden Dr. Mildred Solomon checks in to the Manhattan's Old Hebrews Home where she is a nurse. Solomon becomes her patient and with each hour she holds his fate in her power, she realizes the complexities of her own nature and fate.
We are excited and proud to host the launch of Kim's debut novel at the shop on August 4th. Kim is originally from New York, NY and is currently a writing professor at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. She has written creative nonfiction appearing in literary journals such as Alaska Quarterly Review, So to Speak, and CutBank. Her essays and her new novel have all been received by great reviews and critiques. We will be kicking off her nationwide book tour with refreshments, book signing, and a reading from the book!
