The Empress of Weehawken A Novel [Paperback]

At the end of what is (she cannot help observing) an extraordinary life, Elisabeth Rother has decided to write her memoirs. She recounts her narrow escape with her Jewish husband from the Nazis, and the perilous voyage to the New World of New Jersey, but those, for her, are mere facts of life. For Elisabeth, bighearted and obstinate, the most bothersome and consuming subjects are the unconventional paths and waywardness of her daughter, Renate, and her granddaughter, Irene.

The Empress of Weehawkenis a curiously touching love letter to the difficult but sustaining love of mothers and daughters. Written in the voice of the author's very real grandmother, it is superb . . . razor-sharp, desert-dry, and luxuriantly ironic (The San Diego Union-Tribune).

Irene Discheis a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared inThe New Yorker. Her books, published in twenty-two countries, have included international bestsellers. She divides her time between Berlin and Rhinebeck, NY.

About this Guide

The following author biography and list of questions aboutThe Empress of Weehawkenare intended as resources to aid individual readers and book groups who would like to learn more about the author and this book. We hope that this guide will provide you a starting place for discussion, and suggest a variety of perspectives from which you might approachThe Empress of Weehawken.

Frau Professor Doktor Rother is stubborn, hypochondriacal, devoid of the slightest sentimentality. . . . She is also, by the way, frighteningly funny. . . . I couldn't get enough of her life story--Irene Dische made me laugh at the shock of it all. Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil

An adrenaline-shot of a novel . . .The Empress of Weehawkenis sharp as razors on the gradual entrapment of Jews in Germany. It's a classic immigration tale about a family's 'precarious union with America.' Mil“y