Suzane Adam and Becka Mara McKay—Laundry

Where: Magers and Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55408

Israeli author Suzane Adam is joined by her translator Becka Mara McKay for a reading from her novel Laundry and a conversation about the translation process.

Laundry is a novel of psychological suspense that focuses on family relationships and the aftermath of childhood trauma. Introspective Ildiko revisits her childhood in the 1960s in a small, village in Transylvania. Now, after her immigration to Israel and the process of growing up and adapting, the repressed nightmares from the past return and threaten to destroy the bonds of love and security she has built in the intervening years. As her story unfolds—and with it the parallel stories of her family—we come to understand the mysterious, violent event that begins the novel, and to see how Ildiko’s story has come full circle. Laundry is a psychological thriller driven by characters whose lives were shaped by the Holocaust.

Suzane Adam was born in Satu Mare, Transylvania, and came to Israel at the age of ten. She published her first novel, Laundry, in 2000, followed by Mayamiya in 2002 and Janis’s Mother in 2004. In 2006, she was awarded the Kugel Prize for Janis’s Mother. Her work has been translated in German and English.

Becka Mara McKay’s poetry and translations have appeared in ACM, American Letters, and Commentary, Columbia, Controlled Burn, Cranky, eXchanges, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Third Coast, small spiral notebook, TWO LINES, and elsewhere. In 2004 she received a fellowship from the American Literary Translators Association. In 2006 she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Cosponsored with Magers and Quinn Booksellers, The Office of Cultural Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel, and Words Without Borders.