Book: "Like Wafers In Honey"

This debut novel from food writer Leah Eskin of the Chicago Tribune combines the historical sweep and emotional power of "The Invisible Bridge" by Julie Orringer and the resonant use of food and recipes of "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel.

The story opens on the mountaintop town of Pitigliano, Italy, once called Little Jerusalem for its vibrant, centuries-old Jewish community. But the year is 1943. Mussolini has enacted anti-Jewish laws across Italy, and the family of Stella Fortuna struggles to maintain any sense of their former life. Then one night a neighbor comes to their door holding a ricotta pudding and tells them “You must leave now. You’re in grave danger.” The Nazis have arrived to help the Fascists of Italy enact their own Final Solution.

Leah writes about food and other pressing matters. Her novel, "Like Wafers in Honey," tells the story of Stella, a Jewish girl from Tuscany fleeing Fascist brutality. And it follows Edda, a Westchester housewife trying to save a lost treasure—Italian Jewish cuisine. Recipes included. Yotam Ottolenghi calls the book “beautiful … a survival story and a cultural archive … showing how memory, food, and storytelling can resist erasure.”

Leah is also the author of the memoir "Slices of Life: A Food Writer Cooks Through Many a Conundrum" and writes the desserts column for Midwest Living. She lives in Chicago with her husband and their chocolate Lab.

Cost:

• Event only - Free
• Event & Book - $28

Book purchase tickets will close Wednesday, March 31, at 12 a.m.