**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**  

We are so excited to welcome authors Mansi Shah and Weina Dai Randel to our virtual stage! They will be discussing Mansi's new book, "Saving Face" (People love a rags-to-riches story but hate a woman who lied to get ahead) and Weina's latest release "The Master Jeweler" (the epic story of a brilliant young woman’s dangerous rise to fame in the perilous world of jewelry in 1920s Shanghai—and the power of love and friendship). Although very different in content, we'll be discussing the importance of their stories, how they delve into diaspora issues, the impact on their books on our thoughts and understanding of the world, and their path to publishing. It's guaranteed to be a fascinating conversation and we hope you can join us for it!

Register directly on Zoom HERE.

Note: This program will be recorded and a link will be sent to all registrants soon after the program. It will be available on YouTube for one month. 

You can buy signed books (by bookplate) by Mansi and Weina from Aesop's Fable. Just write that you would like the book signed in the notes section at checkout.

Buy signed books by Mansi and Weina (link coming soon)

About Saving Face:

Ami Shah is on the brink of life-changing success. Her skin-care empire, Amala, is set for acquisition by a Fortune 500 company, and she has just been nominated for the Global Changemakers Award, the most revered entrepreneurial honor. There’s just one problem: she’s a complete and utter fraud. 

Twenty years ago in Singapore, abandoned orphan Monica Joseph made a decision to steal her wealthy classmate’s identity and move halfway around the world to build her life on someone else’s name. For twenty years, she’s managed to hide in plain sight…until an ambitious fledgling journalist sets out to write the inaugural full-length profile on her. With her carefully constructed persona and life’s work now in jeopardy, Monica is left with no other choice: she must return to the scene of the crime—and the one place she vowed never to revisit. 

About Mansi:

Born in Toronto to Indian immigrants, Mansi Shah is the author of Saving Face, A Good Indian Girl, The Taste of Ginger, and The Direction of the Wind, which center on Gujarati characters and speak to generational differences across the Indian diaspora. Now based in Los Angeles, Mansi left her long-time career as an entertainment attorney in Hollywood to travel the world and write full time. She loves to cook, and food often plays a prominent role in her books.

About The Master Jeweler:

Harbin, China, 1925. Fifteen-year-old Anyu Zhang discovers a priceless Fabergé egg in the snow and returns it to the owner, Isaac Mandelburg, a fugitive and former master jeweler for Russia’s imperial palace. In gratitude, he leaves her his address in Shanghai and a promise of hospitality, forever altering her fate.

A dazzling world of jewelry shrouded in secrecy and greed awaits, when later Anyu arrives at Mandelburg’s jewelry shop as an orphan. Single-minded and relentless, Anyu will stop at nothing until she masters the craft of jewelry making. But she soon finds herself entangled in the treacherous underbelly of the city, where violent gangsters stalk the streets, vicious rivals seek to exploit her, and obsessive collectors conspire to destroy the people she loves.

From snow-crowned land to diamond-sparkling showrooms to a pristine island on the brink of war, The Master Jeweler chronicles an exciting journey of a bold prodigy artisan—including her losses and triumphs—in a glamorous yet perilous world of treasure.

About Weina:

Weina Dai Randel is the acclaimed author of five historical novels, including The Last Rose of Shanghai, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and Night Angels, longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Awards. She is the winner of the RWA RITA® Award, a National Jewish Book Awards finalist and a two-time Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction nominee. Her novels have been translated into seventeen foreign languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew.

Her fifth novel, The Master Jeweler, about a gifted Chinese orphan’s dangerous quest to become a master jeweler in charge of a legendary diamond, will be released in June, 2025.

The first Asian American novelist who intertwined Chinese history with the Jewish diaspora in Shanghai during WWII, Weina was frequently invited to speak at universities, libraries, conferences, book festivals, orthodox and reformed synagogues, and other organizations in the US.

Born in China, Weina came to the United States at twenty-four, when she switched to English and began to speak, write and dream in her second language. She holds an MA in English from Texas Woman’s University in Texas. She has worked as the subject-matter expert for Southern New Hampshire University’s MFA program and as an adjunct professor. Interviews with Weina have appeared on WFAA’s Good Morning Texas and in such publications as World Literature Today, Texas Jewish Post, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Los Angeles Review of Books.

After living in Texas for years, Weina now resides in Boston with her family.

Please register for this event and you'll receive the link in the confirmation and reminder emails - make sure to check your spam folder for them. The email will be coming from Zoom. 

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library and is in collaboration with the Chelmsford, Groton, and Tewksbury Libraries and is in partnership with a multitude of MA & NH libraries.  We are thrilled to be partnering with the Ashland Senior Center for this event. 

Please register for this event and you'll receive the link in the confirmation and reminder emails - make sure to check your spam folder for them, the email will be coming from Zoom.