Join author Dr. Lisa Gruenberg (Nonfiction, June 2007) for a virtual reading and discussion of her second-generation Holocaust memoir, My City of Dreams. This event, hosted by the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and their Medicine and the Muse Program, will be moderated by Laurel Braitman, the program’s Director of Writing and Storytelling and author of the New York Times bestseller, Animal Madness.

In My City of Dreams, Gruenberg, confronted with her elderly father’s flashbacks and nightmares, begins to inhabit the story of his sister Mia, who disappeared into Germany in 1941 when she was just fifteen years old. After her father’s death in 2005, Gruenberg traveled to Vienna, Germany and back to her childhood to explore this lost landscape, and to trace the fates of Mia, their extended family, friends and neighbors. Using letters, old photographs, primary source documents and her father’s writing, she weaves her story with theirs. 

Jane Brox (Nonfiction, MFA Writing Faculty), author of Brilliant and Silence writes: “Gruenberg’s search for coherence becomes a journey of both discovery and imagination, and ultimately brings her to an understanding that proves also to be a form of healing.” My City of Dreams is a gift – an honest and thoughtful book, beautifully written and full of compassion.

Learn more about My City of Dreams here: lisagruenberg.com