An Evening with Amy Blumenfeld: Such Good People
About this Event
“A poignant story of love, loss, loyalty, and being torn between right and wrong. You won’t be able to put this one down.”—Emily Liebert
Event Guidelines
- Each ticket will include either a paperback copy of Such Good People or a $10 gift card to River Bend Bookshop.
- Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
- An audience Q&A and signing will follow the talk.
- Are you a Book Festival Passholder? Email [email protected] to be added to the guest list.
About the Author
Amy Blumenfeld grew up in Queens, New York. She is a graduate of Barnard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she received the James A. Wechsler Award for national reporting. Her essays and articles have appeared on the cover of People, in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, O, The Oprah Magazine, as well in George where she worked as a staff editor and writer. Amy’s debut novel, The Cast, was selected as a New York Post Best Book of the Week and named Winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award in Popular Fiction. She has also been a contributing author to a best-selling anthology and two non-fiction books. Amy lives in New York with her husband and daughter.'
About the Book
An emotionally gripping, character-driven novel about the ripple effect of a split-second decision to protect a friend.It’s 10 p.m. on a Thursday in the spring of her freshman year of college, and April is standing at the back of a crowded Manhattan bar waiting for her friend, Rudy, to arrive. Their eyes lock the moment he enters the room, and in an instant, lives and legacies are altered forever.
Within hours, Rudy is arrested. Within days, April is expelled. Within weeks, he’s incarcerated. And within months, she meets Peter, a prodigious young attorney who makes her world recognizable again.
Nearly fifteen years later, April is happily living in Chicago married to Peter, a mother of three with a fulfilling career and standing yoga date with her girlfriends. On the eve of Peter’s election for local office, Rudy is up for parole. Headlines explode about April’s past, jeopardizing Peter’s campaign and everything they hold dear. Suddenly, April is faced with an impossible choice: protecting the life she created, or the person who sacrificed everything to make that life a possibility. Such Good People is a captivating portrait of blurred lines, divided loyalties, and what it means to love purely, steadfastly, and interminably.
About Melanie Faranello
Melanie Faranello is the award-winning author of the story collection , recipient of the Donald L Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence. Her fiction and essays have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and appeared in various publications such as Swamp Pink, Electric Literature, Hippocampus, StoryQuarterly, and elsewhere. Born in Chicago, she lives in CT where she’s a teaching artist and the founder of the community engagement project, Poetry on the Streets and also Sonder Reading Series.
About the Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival
The Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival is an annual celebration of Jewish literature and culture, featuring a variety of authors, speakers, and events. The Festival is sponsored by the Jewish Book Council and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford. To learn more, and to view the 2026-2027 Festival schedule, click here.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 11.49 to USD 19.88
