Photo by Liz West

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, starts a week from tonight. It marks the beginning of the High Holidays, when Jews all over the world reevaluate their lives and ask forgiveness of those they’ve wronged in the previous year. My new novel, Fields of Gold – the second in the Tarnished Souls series (Learning from Isaac was the first) – comes out on Tuesday. In it the main character, Avi Rosen, has been making bad choices for a long time. He’s an underemployed grad student who’s been supplementing his income by “caretaking” a closeted state politician. Avi’s fast approaching thirty, nearing the end of his schooling and feeling stuck in a morally bankrupt life. Too many compromises can paint you into a very dark corner. But a dazzling smile can change everything, as Avi finds out when his jaded world is rocked by an incredibly wholesome, handsome and very appealing organic farmer.

There’s love, sex, betrayal and the possibility of forgiveness. Life is messy. As the leaves turn and the season changes, Rosh Hashana offers Avi and the rest of us an opportunity to switch direction, say we’re sorry and start again.

Here’s wishing you all a sweet New Year.

A drop of honey, photo by Dino Giordano