Charter Books and the Loeb Visitors Center will host an evening with author and Columbia Journalism School professor Nicholas Lemann on Tuesday, April 14, from 6 to 7 p.m. at 50 Spring St. in Newport.
Lemann will discuss his latest book, “Returning: A Search for Home across Three Centuries,” which was published March 24. The event is free and open to the public, with walk-ins welcome. Organizers ask that attendees RSVP at charterbookstore.com/events.
The memoir traces Lemann’s family history across three centuries, beginning with his ancestors Jacob and Miriam, who lived in Newport in the 19th century. The book explores the family’s roots in the city, including the influence of Touro Synagogue and Newport’s Jewish community.
From there, Lemann follows his family’s journey from their arrival in the 1830s as peddlers from Germany to their lives as plantation owners, department store owners, and eventually prominent figures in New Orleans’s high society — a world Lemann describes as one where Jewish families could never quite fully belong.
A staff writer for The New Yorker since 1999, Lemann is also the author of “The Promised Land,” “The Big Test,” “Redemption,” and “Transaction Man.”
The evening will include a discussion, Q&A, and book signing. Copies of “Returning” are available for purchase at Charter Books, located at 8 Broadway in Newport.