I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TELL YOU THIS

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A01=Marian Thurm
abuse
adoption
Auschwitz
Author_Marian Thurm
battles
betrayal
Brooklyn
camera
Category=FBAN
Category=FS
Category=FW
Category=FXD
child custody
city
courthouse
dark humor
dementia
divorce
downtown
dynamics
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_philosophy-religion
family court
father
female judge
forthcoming
generational trauma
grandma
grieving
holocaust survivor
husband
infractions
judicial system
law
lawsuits
lawyer
love affairs
Manhattan
memory loss
mother
step parents
takeout
tatto removal
tattoos
urban life

Product details

  • ISBN 9781953002853
  • Publication Date: 27 Aug 2026
  • Publisher: Delphinium Books, Inc
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Paperback
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A complex family drama with a Manhattan family court judge at its center.

 I Don’t Know How to Tell You This focuses on Judge Rachel Sugarman and her life both inside and outside the courtroom. Rachel is part of a close Jewish family whose lives are marked by significant emotional challenges, including the painful recognition that her beloved husband is slowly being diminished by memory loss, and the past trauma of her mother-in-law, a prickly Holocaust survivor who, in old age, continues to struggle with her grief. 

Rachel’s career as a judge and the power she wields in her courtroom offer an intimate look at a woman navigating what is still, in the 21st century, a profession most often dominated by men. The novel explores the very topical issues of child and spousal abuse, which color the dark undercurrent of the courtroom scenes. And though it reflects serious issues, there is very clearly a pitch-black comic sensibility at work throughout the novel.  By turns sad and touching and quirkily humorous, I Don’t Know How To Tell You This is vintage Marian Thurm.  

Marian Thurm is the author of nine novels and five short story collections, including Today Is Not Your Day, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Her novel The Clairvoyant was a New York Times Notable Book. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Michigan Quarterly Review, Narrative Magazine, The Southampton Review, and many other magazines, and have been included in The Best American Short Stories, and numerous other anthologies. Her books have been translated into Japanese, Swedish, Dutch, German, and Italian. She has taught creative writing at Yale University and Barnard College, and in the MFA programs at Columbia University and Brooklyn College.

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