Book Launch: Final of trilogy chronicling ‘Lorch’ women’s transatlantic history – ‘The Other Shore’
The Other Shore is the closing volume of Maristella Lorch’s auto-biographical trilogy Beyond Gibraltar, the story of generations of strong women covering more than a century, including two World Wars, the Cold War, and the explosion of terrorism. Interweaving memory and history, the personal and the global, The Other Shore, that begins with the death of Lorch’s second husband and the flashback to their torrid love affair on the Columbia campus in the early 50’s, focuses on the space of the imagination and the drive to build a family, not only a genetic one but an intellectual and creative one that defies time and geography.
Maristella de Panizza Lorch is Professor Emerita of Italian and Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Barnard College and Columbia University, as well as Founding Director Emerita of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. She is the mother of three daughters and the widow of the mathematician Edgar Raymond Lorch. The Other Shore is the closing volume of the trilogy Beyond Gibraltar, following Mamma in her Village and Beyond Gibraltar.
“In this highly poetic book time is not just a meaningless succession of moments but a circular reality similar to the rings that mark the inner part of a growing tree: every line is enriched by its connection to the other, celebrating the rooting power of memory and love.”
Ingrid Rossellini, author of “Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance”
“In narrating her century-long journey, Lorch takes her readers from Nazi-occupied Rome to Columbia University, from a wooded retreat in the Catskill Mountains to a bush camp in the heart of Kenya’s Masai Mara. She creates a magical tableau of life, literature, and the love that binds a family.”
Joshua Hammer, author of “The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu” (and the upcoming “The Falcon Thief”)
“Throughout my years at Barnard College, Maristella Lorch was a beacon in my life, not only as an incredible scholar, but also as a devoted mother, step-mother and lover. Reading The Other Shore I am once again moved by how perfectly she modeled that women can do and be everything.”
Erica Jong, American novelist, satirist, and poet
“This is a book that should be read by all who are interested in how the intellectual migration helped shape modern America – one based on the pictures drawn by a remarkable woman nearing 100 years of age who experienced a wildly changing world.”
Jonathan R. Cole, John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University, Provost and Dean of Faculties (1989-2003),Columbia University
