Caren Umbarger

Coming To: a Midwestern Tale Caren Umbarger

Winner of the 2011 Florida Book Awards Bronze Medal for General Fiction.On the eve of the Great Depression, the actress wife of a Jewish community leader fights against the pressures of tradition to preserve her own identity. Taking chances she never imagined - with cataclysmic consequences - Lillian Scharf pursues a radical option and gives the performance of her life in Caren Umbarger's finely crafted debut. This scintillating exploration of wealth and marriage, power and betrayal, anti-Semitism and self-awareness is as relevant today as it was in the time of its setting. Emotionally devastating and altogether inspiring, COMING TO is an original and breathtaking panorama of the human heart, the desire for freedom, and the quest for an authentic voice.