Whistling in the Dark: Personal Essays

Lucienne S. Bloch's beautifully written personal essays explore her world on the Upper West Side of New York City. Growing up in the 1950s as the daughter of refugees from Hitler's Europe who longed for their former lives and culture, these essays explore her youth, her mother's Viennese upbringing, her father's work in the diamond business and long battle with Alzheimer's, her typewriter, the landscapes of New York, her ongoing sense of alienation, and her development as a writer.

Readers will be swept up in the graceful prose that distinguishes Lucienne S. Bloch's award-winning work. The universal themes of memory, belonging, family, identity, survival, and aging are artfully woven throughout the essays in Whistling in the Dark and will resonate with readers of all ages and backgrounds.