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Rivka Galchen

Biography

Rivka Galchen

Rivka Galchen received her MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, having spent a year in South America working on public health issues. Galchen completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Robert Bingham Fellow. Her essay on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics was published in The Believer, and she is the recipient of a 2006 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Galchen lives in New York City. She is the author of the novels ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES and EVERYONE KNOWS YOUR MOTHER IS A WITCH.

Rivka Galchen

Books by Rivka Galchen

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
by Rivka Galchen - Fiction, Historical Fiction

The story begins in 1618, in the German duchy of Württemberg. Plague is spreading. The Thirty Years' War has begun, and fear and suspicion are in the air throughout the Holy Roman Empire. In the small town of Leonberg, Katharina Kepler is accused of being a witch. Katharina is an illiterate widow, known by her neighbors for her herbal remedies and the success of her children. So when the deranged and insipid Ursula Reinbold accuses Katharina of offering her a bitter, witchy drink that has made her ill, she is in trouble. Facing the threat of financial ruin, torture and even execution, Katharina tells her side of the story to her friend and next-door neighbor Simon, a reclusive widower imperiled by his own secrets.

Atmospheric Disturbances
by Rivka Galchen - Fiction, Psychological Suspense

Hailed as a virtuosa storyteller, garnering comparisons ranging from Borges to Murakami, Rivka Galchen has received a level of ebullient acclaim rarely bestowed on debut novelists. Exploring the nature of love, identity, truth, and reality itself, Atmospheric Disturbances is equally funny and fantastical, yet grounded in colorful details capturing the conflicts of daily life.