The Manchester Community Library is pleased to host author GennaRose Nethercott as she brings her breakout novel THISTLEFOOT to life—animated by hand-built shadow crankies and ornate puppetry. Recommended for ages 12+

About THISTLEFOOT: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR • The Wall Street Journal • Washington Independent Review of Books • BookPage • Book Riot

“The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home outside Kyiv—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide—erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore: a powerful and poignant exploration of healing from multi-generational trauma told by a bold new talent.”

About the author:
GENNAROSE NETHERCOTT is the author of a novel, Thistlefoot, and a short story collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart—winner of the Vermont Book Award for Fiction. Her first book, The Lumberjack’s Dove, was selected by Louise Glück as winner of the National Poetry Series— and as a folklorist, she serves as the head writer behind the podcast Lore. Nethercott’s work has been dubbed best-of-the-year by NPR, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Independent Review of Books, BookPage, and more—and she spends her time touring widely, performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow). She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery.

This event is presented as part of the Yiddish Book Center’s Public Libraries Program, a partnership with the American Library Association. Made possible by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. Funding from this program allows the Manchester Community Library to host reading groups and related programming to explore how Yiddish literature can provide a springboard for powerful conversations about religion, assimilation, identity, and immigration.