Join us for a literary evening with Michael Levitin. Michael will be reading from his novel 'Disposable Man'. About Disposable ManSet in contemporary Berlin, Disposable Man tells the story of Max Krumm: American expatriate, struggling journalist and the reluctant descendant of Holocaust survivors. Krumm also suffers from a mysterious genetic disorder: All of the men in his family are cuckolds. After his German wife leaves him, Krumm falls ill and is haunted by memories of his Jewish past—in particular, a desperate postcard his great aunt once sent from the Siberian gulag addressed simply, “Albert Einstein, U.S.A.” A multigenerational novel woven into the backdrop of revolutionary-era Russia and Nazi Europe, Disposable Man tackles enduring themes of loss, male identity and the search for meaning. Holding up a mirror to Gen X and millennials, it explores today’s generation of stalled, disposable men as it follows Krumm on a rambling journey east through Poland into Lithuania where he attempts to uncover a family secret and, in the process, regains his manhood.
About the Author
Michael Levitin was born in Maine in 1976 and grew up in northern California. He studied history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and earned his Masters degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and Time, among other publications. He was co-founding editor of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and founding editor of the Prague Literary Review. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his partner and daughter. This is his first novel.