The deep, enduring and complex friendship between Vincent and Theo Van Gogh shaped both brothers’ lives. Theo, recognizing his brother’s artistic genius, fought to bring the painter’s gifts to skeptical art dealers, the public, and other artists. He supported his brother both emotionally and financially, often at the cost of his own peace of mind and personal happiness. Vincent, likely bipolar by today’s understanding, deeply loved Theo and needed his approval. Meticulously researched and drawing on over 600 letters from Vincent to Theo during his lifetime, Heiligman crafts an engaging tale about complex emotions, loyalty, and the passionate commitment to art.

Recognition for Vincent and Theo includes the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Printz Honor Award, and the Boston Globe-Hom Book Award for Nonfiction. A previous book, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith was also nationally celebrated for adult and young adult readers. Heiligman is an Allentown native with fond and vivid memories of school trips to the Allentown Art Museum. She resides in Manhattan with her husband and dog; two grown sons drop by occasionally.

This novel moves seamlessly between the past and present as it focuses on two courageous, fatherless girls—Rawiya in the Arab world of the past and Nour in the same geographical area of the present—as they negotiate dangers and everyday life to find and define home. Swept up by the magic and adventure of the Thousand and One Nights, we travel with Rawiya, disguised as a boy, as she seeks to apprentice to a celebrated mapmaker in the ancient world. American-born Nour, her father having died of cancer in New York, returns with her mother and sisters to her parents’ homeland of Syria. Their Syrian neighborhood destroyed by exploding shells in an escalating civil war, the family flees, becoming refugees seeking safety. Both Rawiya and Nour encounter situations which call upon their presence of mind, courage, and generosity.

The author is Syrian American, the daughter of a Muslim Syrian father and a Christian American mother. This is her debut novel. She is a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) and of American Mensa. Her short fiction has appeared in publications including The Kenyon Review and The Saturday Evening Post. She is a Montalvo Arts Center Lucas Artists Program Fellow. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

The economic crash of 2008 has had unsettling effects on employees at Ellery Consumer Research and virtually everywhere in corporate America and beyond. Human Resources director Rosa Guerrero works with intelligence and compassion to keep the company sound and take care of her employees, inspiring them, helping them develop their skills, and much more. This “razor sharp and achingly funny” novel examines an array of personalities as they negotiate work life and personal lives. Loyalty, love, loneliness; dress codes, deception, daring; ambition, altruism, affection. The world in its rich variety is within these pages.

Jillian Medoff is both a writer and a business professional. She has been a Fellow at several writers’ centers, including the MacDowell and Blue Mountain in the United States and the Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. Hunger Point, one of her four novels, was made into an original cable movie. In addition to writing, she serves as a senior consultant on communications strategies with the Segal Group.