Kingdom of Olives and Ash

Kingdom of Olives and Ash
Compiled and Edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman

Book reading and discussion with
Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, Lorraine Adams, Colum McCann & Avner Gvaryahu

Sponsored by Harper Perennial
Hosted by Book Culture, in partnership with Broadway Presbyterian Church

June 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Israel occupation of the West Bank. Over the past two years, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, two of today’s most renowned novelists and essayists, have joined forces with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silencean organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice thereand a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground in the contested territories.

Kingdom of Olives and Ash includes contributions from some of our most esteemed storytellers, including essays from editors Chabon and Waldman, as well as Geraldine Brooks, Colum McCann, Colm Toibin, Lorraine Adams, Dave Eggers, Madeleine Thien, Asaf Gavron, Raja Shiehada. Their writing enables readers to understand the human narratives behind the litany of grim destruction broadcasted nightly on the news. Together they all stand witness to the human cost of the occupation.

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, the middle-grade book Summerland, and several others.

Ayelet Waldman is the author of, among other books, the memoir A Really Good Day and the novel Love & Treasure. She is the editor of the anthology Inside This Place Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons.

Avner Gvaryahu was born in the Israeli city of Rehovot, raised in the religious nationalist community, and served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Defense Forces. He has been a member of Breaking the Silence since 2010 and hold an M.A in human rights from Columbia University.

Colum McCann is the internationally bestselling author of seven novels and three collections of stories. His most recent novel, TransAtlantic, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and his previous novel, Let the Great World Spin, won the National Book Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His fiction has been published in thirty-five languages. He lives in New York City with his wife and their three children.

Lorraine Adams is a novelist and Pulitzer-winning journalist. Her first novel, Harbor, on North African Muslims, won the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award and was short-listed for The Guardian First Book award. Her second, The Room and the Chair took her to Iran and Afghanistan. She won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010 and the Pulitzer for investigative reporting in 1992. She worked for The Washington Post for eleven years, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review.

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. We endeavor to stimulate public debate about the price paid for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on a daily basis and control its everyday life.

Since 1912, the people of Broadway Presbyterian Church have worshipped at the corner of Broadway and 114th Street. In the last century, BPC has become a vibrant and inclusive community of welcome. Throughout the week, hundreds of people come seeking food, medical care, and shelter through Broadway Community programs, including the Four-Star Soup Kitchen.

Free; $16.99 ticket with book