{"title":"Craig Darch","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"l-chaim-and-lamentations-book-craig-darch-9781588383693","title":"L'Chaim and Lamentations","description":"L’Chaim and Lamentations is a collection of seven richly layered stories that tackle not only the question of what it means to be Jewish but also what it means to be human, exploring universal themes of companionship and loneliness, faith and perseverance. The colorful characters who people its pages are varied: Aharon, who struggles to assert his sexuality against the burden of his father’s expectations; Esther and Sadie, an odd-couple pair of elderly roommates; Ida Nudelman, an aging secretary whose place in the world no longer feels certain; and Mendel Nachman, a cantor who finds redemption in a diner. These stories detail the lives of the powerful and confident, but also the struggle of the modest and the determined, people doing the very best they can. Some are at home in the poor, immigrant neighborhoods of New York’s Lower East Side in the 1920s, others spend their lives tending to the dead in a Jewish cemetery in post-war Poland, while still others navigate the realities of life in contemporary America. Their stories span across place and time, but they are bound together by their shared historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds. The inherited trauma of the Jewish people informs Craig Darch’s characters as they toil, flail, and often flourish. Charming, poignant, and life-affirming, L’Chaim and Lamentations revels in local color while celebrating the universal joy and suffering that permeates these tales of the living and all the ghosts they carry.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50393640567057,"sku":"CIN1588383695G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1588383695.jpg?v=1751407864"},{"product_id":"from-brooklyn-to-the-olympics-book-craig-darch-9781588383051","title":"From Brooklyn to the Olympics","description":"This book follows Mel Rosen's life from the streets of Brooklyn during the 1930s and 1940s to his selection as head coach of the United States track-and-field team for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics. The story describes how a Jewish kid from Brighton Beach, New York, followed his dream to become the head track-and-field coach at Auburn University for 28 years. Rosen's achievements there were extraordinary. He coached seven Olympians and 143 All-Americans and guided Auburn's track-and-field team to four consecutive Southeastern Conference indoor championships. The pinnacle of his career was coaching U.S. Olympians to a record 20 medals in Barcelona. As a result of his impressive achievements, Rosen was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame (1993), the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame (1995), and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (1994). Auburn University honored him in 2006 by naming its new track the Hutsell-Rosen Track.\u003cp\u003eAuthor Craig Darch interviewed many of Rosen's former athletes and fellow coaches. Included are comments from football\/baseball superstar Bo Jackson, legendary football coach Pat Dye, and Olympic medalists Harvey Glance, Willie Smith, and Carl Lewis. Most importantly, the book relies on the memories of Mel Rosen, his family, his Brighton Beach buddies, and other friends he made along the way. It details Rosen's coaching career during the turbulent 1950s and 1960s. Included are lively vignettes about Auburn sports history, Alabama history, Jews in the South, and the Olympics. The story is an intimate, anecdote-rich portrait of a man who achieved excellence both as a track coach and as a person.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50529265778961,"sku":"CIN1588383059VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037847879953,"sku":"NIN9781588383051","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51700696088849,"sku":"CIN1588383059G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1588383059.jpg?v=1751309225"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-craig-darch.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}