Branch Out Book Club: September - Thistlefoot

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*Please note: For this book club, the author will not be in attendance. This book club is an opportunity for our community to discuss books together in a casual and welcoming environment.

Join us for our in-person book club – Branch Out Book Club – on September 18th at 6:30pm at Titcomb’s Bookshop. For the month of September, we will be discussing Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott. An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore: a powerful and poignant exploration of healing from multi-generational trauma told by a bold new talent.

Titcomb’s is excited to announce that September’s book club will be in partnership with local non-profit Sandwich for All: an inclusive, non-partisan group dedicated to making the Sandwich community more welcoming and supportive of all residents, neighbors, and visitors. This collaboration was born from a shared interest in creating space for our community to have conversations about experiences other than our own. Sandwich for All is hosting a panel discussion on September 7th at the Sandwich Public Library called “Responding to Antisemitism on Cape Cod.”(For more information, please visit sandwichforall.org)  At its heart, Thistlefoot is a story about the Jewish diaspora, so we thought it would be an interesting book for reflecting and discussing together.

Our bookseller Ana says: “One of my favorite books of 2022 and one of my favorite fantasy book of all time. The writing is beautiful and poetic, the characters are diverse and fascinating, I absolutely loved the folk elements and the house being given a voice. The whimsicalness of the book makes the finale hit so much harder, and considering the situation in Ukraine at the moment I think this would be a good read for our times.”

Our bookseller Meghan says: “Every word of this book is a delight. The language is so yummy and playful, the characters are so vivid and full, the handling of ancestral trauma and processing grief is so compassionate and deeply needed. This book made me laugh, made me cry, and my heart burst open in a way I have not felt in a long time. This book is a treasure.”

ABOUT THE BOOK

BOOK ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR • The Wall Street Journal • Washington Independent Review of Books • BookPage • Book Riot

JEWISH FICTION AWARD HONOREE

In the tradition of modern fairy tales like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver comes an immersive fantasy saga, a debut novel about estranged siblings who are reunited after receiving a mysterious inheritance.

“A wonderfully imaginative, wholly enchanting novel of witness, survival, memory, and family that reads like a fairy tale godfathered by Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton in a wild America alive with wonders and devils alike. Thistlefoot shimmers with magic and mayhem and a thrilling emotional momentum.” —Libba Bray, bestselling author of The Diviners

“Gorgeously written. . . . This novel contains delights on every page. The author displays a capacious imagination, providing an entertaining, colorful read while grappling with subjects of utmost importance to today’s turbulent world. This book blooms from a fairy tale to a panoptic story that defies space and time, brimming with creativity, wisdom, and love.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“At times solemn, at times playful, the [narrator] speaks to the reader like a storyteller to a crowd gathered around a campfire. . . . [ Thistlefoot] balance[s] fun and solemnity, joy and suffering.”
– Mallory Yu, NPR

The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home outside Kyiv—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide—erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

ABOUT BRANCH OUT BOOK CLUB

We are interested in reading and discussing books of various genres (mixing it up each month) featuring diverse voices. We invite folks to try reading genres that you might not typically read! From poetry to fantasy, romance to horror, sci-fi to nonfiction!

This book club offers a casual and welcoming environment for our community to read together and to share thoughts and reflections together, hosted by Titcomb’s Bookshop booksellers Caleb & Meghan.

ABOUT SANDWICH FOR ALL

Sandwich for All is an inclusive, non-partisan group dedicated to making the Sandwich community more welcoming and supportive of all residents, neighbors, and visitors. Our community is richer when we value our differences in race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, class, abilities, age, or military/veteran status. We work to be agents of positive change—inspiring action that brings out the best in our town by viewing diversity as an opportunity for all. For more information, visit www.sandwichforall.org

Event address: 

Titcomb’s Bookshop
432 Route 6A

East Sandwich, MA 02537
www.titcombsbookshop.com
508-888-2331