Historian and novelist Robert Rosenstone will debut his new novel ‘Red Star, Crescent Moon: A Muslim-Jewish Love Story,’ with a reading on Saturday, September 11, from 4 to 6 p.m. at his home in Pacific Palisades. The reading will take place at 5 p.m. The novel is set in Spain against the vibrant and colorful background of a women’s film festival, the seductive activities of a movie star, and the actions of terrorists who wish to reclaim that country for Islam. Told in multiple voices, the novel confronts some of the major cultural and political dilemmas of our time, creating a world of characters caught in webs of historical misunderstanding. Embedded within the story is a meditation on the meaning of the past, how we depict and remember it, how our histories shape us, how traditions at once create and limit our identities and our feelings for other human beings and cultures. Accompanying the reading will be a photographic exhibition, ‘Pilgrimage in Al Andalus,’ by Rosenstone’s wife, Nahid Massoud, who provides a visual recollection of her husband’s research for the book in Andalucia, Spain. Rosenstone is a professor of history at Caltech and the author of a dozen books of history, criticism, memoir and fiction. Massoud, a native of Kabul, Afghanistan, came to America on a student visa in 1977 and was given political asylum in the U.S. after the Soviet invasion endangered her family, all of whom later escaped to the U.S. She directs Sharq, an art space at her home devoted to contemporary works by artists from the Middle and Far East. Please RSVP by visiting sharqart@verizon.net or calling (310) 454-6826. Rosenstone will also read and sign ‘Red Star, Crescent Moon’ on Thursday, September 23 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore Ave.
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