Hannah Bloom

"A multi-layered novel, Herz does a great job of taking us into Hannah's head and heart and also exploring the complicated nature of both familial and business relationships. A sensitive and timely read!" -Meryl Ain, Ed.D. author of Shadows We Carry and The Takeaway Men

Hannah Bloom dreams of the day she'll have chased away all those doubts and worries that plague her and be free to call herself a poet. In her everyday life, she works in the business she and her husband, Jake, founded together. While their two young daughters are away at summer camp for the first time, Hannah expects to have time for her poetry. But life has other ideas.

Every day, she finds gut-wrenching letters sitting in their mailbox from their homesick, unhappy children. Then, as she comes to grips with the sudden news of her unexpected pregnancy, she learns her mother's contemplating a move to Switzerland-a move back to a Europe their whole family fled to escape the Holocaust. And to top it all off, Hannah and Jake receive notification of a lawsuit that threatens their business. Deemed the writer in the family, it falls to Hannah to document their side of the dispute for the mediator.

While she relives those past, day-to-day events, she can't help wondering how she'll juggle her role as wife and business partner, mother, daughter, and finally, she hopes, poet.