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Congregation Neve Shalom, Metuchen, is holding its 15th annual Book and Author Event on Jan. 25. This year's event features four authors: Erin Einhorn, author of "The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home"; Arie Kaplan, author of "From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books"; Peter Manseau, author of "Songs for the Butcher's Daughter: A Novel"; and Diana Spechler, author of "Who By Fire: A Novel".

The event began in 1994 with Sam Freedman, a Columbia University professor and a Neve Shalom member. The event was then run by congregation member Flora Cowen, who ran it for several years before current chair Amy Artman took over. The Book and Author event is held under the direction of the temple's adult education committee. It was recently renamed in memory of long-time Metuchen residents Donald and Ruth Kahn.

"We had a large audience over the years," Artman said. "We draw people from other areas. We have a lot of return people."

The four books featured are of Jewish interest and are a mix of fiction and non-fiction to "try to get a blend of different types of books," Artman said. "We try to think of our audience, and for books that are accessible to all types of readers, with particular interest in Jewish content."

Einhorn's book tells the story of her search to find information about her mother's mysterious World War II childhood.

"I always knew that my mom was born in Nazi-occupied Poland, but she always kept the first few years of her life a secret," Einhorn told The Jewish State. Einhorn knew that her mother's mother died during the Holocaust and her mother's father came to get her after the war.

"My mother wailed hysterically at the sight of this man," Einhorn said about her grandfather. "Despite this, she never talked about this moment. She always said that whoever took care of her loved her."

Despite the stories that her mother told her, Einhorn did not have the full picture. She moved to Poland for a year in order to track down the family that hid her mother during the war.

When she arrived in Poland, Einhorn discovered that "the past hadn't really gone away." What becomes a search for family uncovers problems that are still affecting the family that hid her mother, decades after the Holocaust ended.

"The Holocaust was this huge, catastrophic event," Einhorn said. "And obviously, we're more concerned with the bigger picture, but there were all these little things that just never got taken care of."

During the book talk, Einhorn will address the importance of recording the stories of the final survivors.

"A lot of the 'never forget' mantra is the crimes committed, and many people forget about the lives, culture, and history [that was destroyed]," Einhorn explained. "I was most proud of being able to recover all of these lives and really get to understand who my family had been."

Spechler's novel, "Who By Fire," originated from a short story she wrote in graduate school about the novel's main character, Bits. Throughout the short story, Bits anxiously awaits a phone call from her brother, who lives in Israel, after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

Spechler returned to the short story, transforming it into a novel that delves into two different challenges that face Jews today.

"I wound up returning to the story. I really wanted to explore some of the conflict between secular and religious Jews, and explore the feelings that we get as Jews in America when we hear about suicide bombings," Spechler explained.

Spechler will further discuss the novel, her first, at the Book and Author event.

Manseau's novel, also his first, "grew out of an experience" Manseau had working for the National Yiddish Book Center. "Songs for the Butcher's Daughter" was inspired by the beauty Manseau discovered in Jewish storytelling and was inspired to write a novel based on that discovery. The book is about a man who believes he is the last Yiddish poet in America and another man who is translating his works. What makes Manseau different as an author, however, is that he is not Jewish.

"Just by having no ethnic or cultural connection to Judaism, I was excited by the by the literature I was collecting," Manseau said. "I was interested in writing a book that would deal with a culture that's not one's own."

At the Book and Author event, Manseau will address the Yiddish language and the necessity to translate Yiddish works as the language dies out.

"Not being Jewish allows me to have a fresh perspective on [Yiddish]," Manseau said.

The Book and Author event is being held at Neve Shalom, 250 Grove Ave., Metuchen. The event is free. Refreshments will be served at 9:30 a.m., and the program will begin at 10 a.m. A question and answer period will follow the authors' presentations. Copies of the authors' books will be available for purchase and the authors will be available to sign books after the event. For more information, contact Hazzan Sheldon Levin at (732) 548-2238 ext. 14.