Annie Dawid's thought provoking new book, Lily in the Desert, draws the reader in until the very last page.
Often with a book of short stories there are some stories that a reader prefers over others. Every story in this book has its own unique personality just as the characters do. Each story almost demands that the reader care about the characters and makes it difficult to choose a favorite.
This book is a compelling read.

Annie Dawid's characters are like people you meet on a plane, get to know well in an hour, and never forget. She writes across the gender and the gay-straight barriers that hamper lesser imaginations. She writes about Jewish and American cultural history and identity with an ease that masks decades of thoughtful study. "Lily In The Desert" is a generous and delightful gift to the world.

Lily in the Desert takes you to places you want to go. Annie Dawid's touching and poignant book of short stories allows you to travel in the shoes of many sorts...people who are struggling and striving, connecting and disconnected. I loved this book.

"Snow Blossoms" was particularly moving and the last story, "The Settlement" is a masterpiece. I am recommending Lily in the Desert to anyone and everyone.

Annie Dawid's York Ferry follows a couple of decades in the life of a 1960s family from the time that the father abandons the family forward. The format feels more like a group of related short stories than a novel, and, indeed, many of the chapters appeared in literary magazines as short stories. The book lacks the improbable MFA seminar "staginess" that can afflict this type of work. Instead, it is down to earth and in the main believable. The attempt to tie together a theme and some of the attempted "subtleties" of the plot seem a bit too pat. Certain of the more "clever" devices--the epistolary "presence" of the (highly dissatisying) father, the "neat" way in which the daughter's evolution is "connected back" into her family in the final chapter, might have been left on the cutting room floor, but Dawid still rates the five star ranking, because, stated simply, Dawid can write. Dawid can reallly write. Her characters are people whom you might wish to meet. The tone of this novel has an air of dysfunction and despair, but you never get the sense that these characters are wretches. Dawid makes these people interesting and real. If you like real reads about real people which neither get shrouded in cotton candy nor lost in despair, pick up York Ferry. It's a good read.