Following an absence of twenty years and a recent tragedy, two childhood best friends reunite.
In the debut novel by Writing alum Willa Rosenbach Morris '90, interwoven stories circle the roof of Sylvie's childhood home in Queens, NY. The site of a teenage rendezvous, chances not taken, and a mirror image of the roof her best friend Aviva fell from, it is laden with memory. After Aviva's fall, Sylvie returns to Queens, where she and Aviva reconnect over shared personal history and Hebrew education despite having led very different lives. As they uncover family secrets and reminisce on lost love, a new path forward begins to take shape.
Kirkus Reviews called the novel a "haunting, highly charged work," highlighting its characters' unpredictable, honest responses to grief and loss. "It's a narrative that thankfully lacks statutory salt-of-the earth tropes; instead, Morris delivers a deeply felt story of working-class New Yorkers struggling to make sense of a difficult world."
Willa Rosenbach Morris was born and raised in Queens, NY. She attended a liberal yeshiva that allowed girls to study the Talmud and went on to study English literature, earning her Bachelor's at SUNY Stony Brook, Master's at the University of Guelph in Ontario, and her MFA in Fiction at Columbia. She lives in Great Neck, NY with her husband.
Stories from the Roof is available now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
