"Ropshitz, Poland, was once known as the City of Laughter. As this story opens, an eighteenth century badchan, a holy jester whose job is to bring laughter to the celebrants at a Jewish wedding, receives a visitation froma mysterious stranger, triggering a sequence of events that will reverberate across the coming century. In the present day, Shiva Margolin, recovering from the heartbreak of her first queer love and grieving the death of her father, struggles to connect with her guarded mother, who spends most of her spare time at the local funeral home. A student of Jewish folklore, Shiva seizes an opportunity to visit Poland, hoping her family's mysteries will make more sense if she walks in the footsteps of her great-grandmother Mira, about whom no one speaks. What she finds in Poland will make her question not only her past and her future, but also her present, a life shaped by ancestral forces that originated long before she was born."-- Provided by publisher.
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