Dancing with Einstein
Dancing With Einstein tells the story of thirty-year old Marea, whose father’s role in making the first atomic bomb left her with an abiding fear of nuclear annihilation. To try to overcome this history, she engages a therapist, adds a second one, then a third and a fourth, until, without letting on, she is seeing them all. In this way, she keeps her memories safely fragmented until she finds the courage to confront her fear that her father’s death in a single car accident was actually a suicide.
"Achingly beautiful. Wenner's haunted, empathetic, and intriguing protagonist comes to term with her personal legacy while Wenner brilliantly parses the terrible ethos of the atomic bomb and celebrates the power of stories, the lifeblood of the talking cure." - Donna Seaman, Booklist
"Mara's couch-prone introspection is ultimately a vehicle for the author's grander, more intriguing story of war, science and the responsibilities of genius. - The New York Times Sunday Book Review
"Dancing With Einstein is one of those astonishing novels that has it all: intelligence, humor, eroticism, and a strong emotional power." - Pat Conroy
Setting Fires
Setting Fires grew out of the true stories of two arsons. The first was the fire Wenner’s grandmother set to her own Brooklyn lingerie shop in order collect insurance money. The second fire happened when Wenner’s anti-Semitic neighbor set fire to her family's country home with the intention to drive them out. The eerie resonance between those two arsons, separated by decades, became clear in the death bed confession Wenner’s father made in the final days of his battle with cancer. The story he told revealed the emotional toll of a life contorted by secrets and denial. Setting Fires fictionalizes these emotional events in a page-turning story.
"Both a detective story and a family history, Setting Fires provides lessons of forgiveness, redemption, and family loyalty." - St. Louis Dispatch
“…a truthful and touching portrait of a family held together--and torn apart--by guilt and lies." - Kirkus Reviews
“A sophisticated account of one woman's perseverance in learning that even a happy family can have dark secrets, and that facing them honestly can give her the strength to become a force for change." - Publisher's Weekly
Read: "After the Fire"
The New York Times Lives Column
by Kate Wenner