Dear Great Book Guru,  Next Saturday is Sea Cliff Beautification’s Secret Garden Tour and I am going to be selling tickets across from K.C. Gallagher’s at Pirie Park (one of Sea Cliff’s 18 ). While I am sure sales will be brisk, I am also sure there will be some quiet moments, so I want to make sure I have a good book with me.  Any recommendations?          

Admirer of SCBC’s Secret Gardens

Dear Admirer of SCBC’s Secret Gardens, One of my favorite authors – Stewart O’Nan- just came out with a new novel:  CITY OF SECRETS and it’s quite wonderful.  Jossie Jorgensen is a recreated man- his name, his  forged passport, his taxi, his home are all  gifts from the Jewish Defence Organization- a group organized to protect Jewish immigrants from Arab assault and the harshly restrictive British Mandate following World War II.  Jossie had  survived the Holocaust, but his young wife, his siblings, and his parents were not so lucky.  Arriving from a Latvian concentration camp to polyglot Jerusalem, he finds himself morally and emotionally shattered. He chauffeurs American tourists to Christian sites during the day while aiding his underground comrades at night.   When he becomes part of a terrorist plot to overthrow the British, he is forced to examine his place in a brutally, seemingly senseless world.  An absorbing look into a period of history which eerily foreshadows our present time….recommended!