Sunday, October 26, 2025, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Congregation Torat El
301 Monmouth Road
Oakhurst, NJ 07755
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Mary Morris’ The Red House weaves together the intimate story of a daughter searching for answers about her vanished mother with the largely untold story of Italian Jews during World War II.
Thirty years ago, Laura’s mother, Viola, went missing. She left behind her purse, her keys and her mysterious paintings of a red house. Viola was never found, and her family never recovered. Laura, an artist herself, held on to the paintings. On the back of each work, her mother scrawled in Italian, “I will not be here forever.” The family never understood what Viola meant.
Laura follows her mother’s trajectory as she ventures north to Naples, Turin and finally home. Along the way, she confronts the dark truth of her mother’s story and at last makes sense of her own.
One review of the book states: “Morris has created a novel that honors both the specific experiences of Italian Jews during WWII and the universal experiences of love, loss and the search for identity.
Mary Morris is the author of numerous works of fiction, including the novels Gateway to the Moon, The Jazz Palace, A Mother’s Love, and House Arrest, and of nonfiction, including the travel classic Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone. Morris is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature and the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Buy your copy of her book from Bookshop.org (to support independent bookstores) or amazon.com.
Pre-Paid $20 per person by October 22/$25 at the door. A lovely brunch will be served. Please register below.
Please note this event is in person only.
Our Meet the Author program continues to be made possible by the generosity of the B’nai Sholom/Beth El Foundation.
