More about Aviva Rubin’s Visit on June 5th and her book entitled: WHITE
The Beth Israel Book Club
Sarah Cartell grew up in the 1980’s and 90’s in a White supremacist family, controlled by her grandfather whose beliefs and violence mark them all. When an unexpected friendship with a Black boy, and the Jewish town librarian, open her mind and expose those beliefs as vile lies, Sarah begins digging up everything she can about the haters her family celebrates . . . and her grandmother and aunt who fled long ago.
Determined to dismantle the White supremacist network in Canada, Sarah infiltrates a Neo-Nazi gang. As she races to stop the tide of hate crimes, new friends are put in danger and a horrifying family secret begins to emerge. This unravelling lands her in a psychiatric ward, where her therapist forces the resistant Sarah to dig into pain she has ignored, and acknowledge being trapped in the belief that she is unworthy of the world she is fighting for. Can she ever escape the bonds of a hateful family?
Why WHITE is relevant today:
The book peels back the layers of hate and exposes the intimate and complex destruction it unleashes on believers, as much as those who are targeted. Any direction Sarah Cartell turns, something is lost. To choose empathy is to forfeit family and a sense of belonging. Merging two genres – domestic and political fiction – WHITE explores anti-Semitism, racism and the trauma of growing up with hate. What has changed dramatically since the 80’s and 90’s is the legitimacy of white nationalist beliefs and permission to wave that flag. What has not changed is clinging almost desperately to intolerance out of a misguided notion that it guarantees safety for those who fear losing their supposed birthright. In an increasingly polarized world, understanding hate and the divisions it perpetuates as not simply evil, is key to choosing trust over building walls. For Sarah, strong convictions battle her reticence to trust either others or herself. In times that drive us protectively inward, reaching across difference still remains the best way forward. But how do we do that when we feel under threat?
Link to the event post: https://jccpeterborough.com/bookclub-2/
Kindly RSVP here so we have numbers for food and drink.