I'm thrilled that my novel "The Heirs" as included in a roundup of seven books for summer reading in "The Jewish Weekly." Here's what the reviewer, Sandee Brawarsky, said:

"Opening in the beginning of the 2000s, Fran Hawthorne’s debut novel THE HEIRS (SFA Books) is about inheriting stories. Eleanor Ritter is the daughter of an elderly Holocaust survivor — her Polish-born mother has long refused to speak of her experience. But after breaking her hip and landing in the hospital, her mother begins speaking Polish again, more than 50 years after arriving in America. Fragments of her story are revealed, and Eleanor grows increasingly, perhaps obsessively, curious to learn about her family’s past.

"This is a novel of suburban New Jersey, and Hawthorne gets the soccer leagues and bat mitzvah party preparation just right. Eleanor meets the Polish Catholic parents of her son’s soccer friend and tries to tease out their story too, sensing possible connections. Hawthorne, who has written eight nonfiction books, presents a powerful meditation on identity, family history and the legacy of war."