Written by Scarlett Ruggiero
Nov. 9 SCAD writing professor Jonathan Rabb was at E. Shaver Bookseller, hosting his book signing for his most recent novel.
“Among the Living,” tells the story of a Czech Holocaust survivor, who after the war, joined his family in Savannah to rebuild his life.
After recounting some history of the Jewish community in Savannah, Rabb told the story of his own family. His novel dipicted his great uncle Jodi and his great-aunt Marta as well as his 9 years old cousin Edi. Who of which were deported in 1943, from Paris to a concentration camp. And how, even after being separated at the camps, Rabb’s family managed to find each other after the war.
25 years ago, in 1991, Rabb moved to New York, across the street of his cousin Edi. Occasionally, they would have breakfast together, at a diner on 72nd Street.
“He was a lovely guy. He was funny, he was cynical. He was an accountant, living a normal life,” Rabb said, “but there was something shattered inside of him.”
Rabb explained how the writer in him found a potential character in Edi. And since they were related, he wanted to find away to give that character hope.
But setting a Holocaust survivor in New York City just seemed “too obvious.” And shortly after moving in Savannah, Rabb realized it was the perfect setting for this story.
Rabb doesn’t hide his emotional attachment to his novel, which took him three years of research and writing. “I think if I was a younger writer, I would have been very upset that this took me three years,” said Rabb. “But that’s what it took, that’s what these characters took, that’s what my psyche needed to complete it.”
Rabb describes it at as the most intimate book he has ever written.
Most of Rabb’s students know that one of Rabb’s famous sentences is “the best book you have, is the one you are working on now” but due to the time Rabb invested in this novel, it is with pride and confidence he declared that “Among the Living” was the best book he had ever written.
“Among the Living” is available on Amazon, E. Shaver Bookseller and most local bookstores.
Scarlett is a writing major, wine lover and cheese enthusiast from Paris, France. When she isn’t busy writing, she likes to wander around District’s quarter in search of new articles to write.
