Join the Chelmsford Public Library for a special event with Mass Book Award-honoree River Adams! River will share their acclaimed and richly textured novel, The Light of Seven Days.

Living with her Babby after her parents’ death, 10-year-old Dinah Ash is invited to train at Leningrad’s legendary Vaganova Ballet School. In the world of elite dance, she works hard, falls in love, and weathers the Soviet Union’s ubiquitous antisemitism, but despite an impressive talent, she quickly learns that dancers of her “profile” don’t make prima ballerinas. Love of Leningrad, ballet, friends, family, and books sustain Dinah until history intervenes. 

The Soviet war in Afghanistan, the rise of perestroika, and a re-emergence of Nazism leave her vulnerable and exposed. Realizing escape is her only option, she applies for refugee status in America. Dinah’s adjustment to life in the US is a test as much of her identity as of her perseverance. Is who she is something Dinah can forge on her own? Or is identity imposed by upbringing, public opinion, and the myths of our cultures? As Dinah struggles with the questions of religion, race, and worth, her choices and the people she encounters will determine whether the dream of a better life can survive the weight of the past.

This program is sponsored by the Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau and is presented in collaboration with the Massachusetts Center for the Book.

River Adams (they/them) grew up in late Soviet Russia, pursuing a career as a concert pianist, and came to America at the age of 19 as a Jewish refugee. They graduated from Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania, earned their BA at Rosemont College and their MTS at Harvard Divinity School, then returned to Philadelphia to teach religious studies and work as a medical interpreter for Russian-speaking patients. Today, having earned an MFA from Emerson College, they live in Massachusetts; care for their noisy family of eight humans, two dogs, and a cat; and write. They are the author of many published short stories and essays and a biography of Leonard Swidler, There Must Be YOU (Resource Publications, 2014). Their debut novel, The Light of Seven Days (Delphinium Books, 2023) was named finalist by the National Jewish Book Awards and an honor title by the Massachusetts Book Awards.

For more information, visit their website: riveradamsauthor.weebly.com