JCC Book Festival

Join the JCC for their 2021 Book Festival. 

Speaker: Rachel Beanland

Florence Adler Swims Forever

FICTION

National Jewish Book Awards Winner 2020

The title of Rachel Beanland’s new nov­el, Flo­rence Adler Swims For­ev­er, leads read­ers to believe they are crack­ing the spine of a light beach read about a bygone era. The first few chap­ters reward these expec­ta­tions, as the read­er is immersed in the world of 1930s Atlantic City. Yet the book soon takes a turn, tack­ling emo­tion­al themes and a sto­ry­line that becomes increas­ing­ly com­plex by the page.

What makes this nov­el fas­ci­nat­ing is there are not many sto­ries depict­ing Jew­ish immi­grants already liv­ing for a gen­er­a­tion in Amer­i­ca in 1934. The nov­el cen­ters on a Jew­ish fam­i­ly no longer strug­gling to assim­i­late, but rather deal­ing with the chal­lenges of eco­nom­ic sur­vival, anti­semitism, and intermarriage.

Rachel Bean­land is a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of South Car­oli­na and earned her MFA in cre­ative writ­ing from Vir­ginia Com­mon­wealth Uni­ver­si­ty. She lives with her hus­band and three chil­dren in Rich­mond, Vir­ginia. Flo­rence Adler Swims For­ev­er is her first novel.