Talya Jankovits launches "The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom"

Talya will read from the book, followed by a conversation with author Zeeva Bukai, audience Q&A, book signing, and reception.

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In the insulated Hasidic community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, tradition and cultural norms are as sacred as religion. Childhood friendships are cultivated to climb social ladders, matchmakers dictate futures, and young girls are primed for marriage and motherhood. So, when Etty Greenberger, a headstrong redhead and the only child of Holocaust survivors, commits one ugly and thoughtless act, she believes she has sabotaged her opportunity to secure a desirable match. Reluctantly, she agrees to marry Benji Bloom, a fishmonger’s son far below her marital aspirations, becoming Mrs. Etty Bloom.

With each passing year, Etty grows further from the life she had hoped for, filled with disappointment and delusions of grandeur. As she grapples with loss, grief, and the challenges of motherhood, she also discovers friendship, love, and joy in the most unexpected places. It may take a lifetime, but Etty Bloom finally learns that an unremarkable life can be remarkable after all.

Advance Praise for The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom

"A photo-real book that almost reads like a fairytale, and a full exploration of a thoroughly unremarkable life in an utterly remarkable debut novel, Etty’s story is deftly and deeply crafted, and her very particular voice—at times hilarious, at others despondent—will haunt you long after you finish the book." —Jessica Elisheva Emerson

"Jankovits renders the claustrophobic world of post-war Hasidic Williamsburg with ethnographic precision and wry tenderness. We watch as Etty—a funny, smart, fiery girl—becomes smaller and smaller, all of her ambitions channeled into the power politics of kugel and reputation management. A beautifully sad and unexpectedly funny representation of the myriad ways women retain a sense of self in the midst of a patriarchal society." —Sarah Yahm

"Talya Jankovits delivers the delicious goods in her new novel, The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom. Through the lenses of three generations of fierce, funny women, Shaindel, Etty, and Sarala, we share joy, tsuris, daily minutia, and life-changing events. Both bound and protected by a deeply observant community, their present lives shadowed by Jewish generational pasts, these women move forward, imperfectly, but always with courage and spunk. Powerful, poignant, and joyful, The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom is nothing short of remarkable!" —Diane Gottlieb

Talya Jankovits is the author of the novel The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom (Running Wild Press, June 2026) and the poetry collection girl woman wife mother (Kelsay Books), which received First Place in Contemporary Poetry in the 2024 Bookfest Awards. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have been widely published. She is a multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. She holds her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and resides in Chicago with her husband and four daughters.

Zeeva Bukai is the author of the novels The World Between and The Anatomy of Exile, winner of the 2025 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction. Her stories have appeared in Carve Magazine, The Master’s Review, Mcsweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and elsewhere. Her honors include a fellowship at the New York Center for Fiction, residencies at Hedgebrook Writers Colony, and Byrdcliff AIR program in Woodstock NY. She is the recipient of the The Master’s Review fall fiction prize, the Curt Johnson Prose Award, and the Lilith Fiction Award. Her work has been anthologized in Smashing The Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible, Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine, and Out of Many: Multiplicity and Divisions in America Today. She holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and is the Assistant Director of Academic Support at SUNY Empire State University. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

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