Jessie's Coffee Shop

A work of magical realism, the Cursed Hat tells the story of Jewish hatmakers threatened by a veil-wearing Nazi known as the “stealer of faces” who must use the god Hermes’ fabled hat to teleport out of Germany during Kristallnacht. They won’t be safer in America, however, until they break the curse that has trapped them in the hat business for sixteen centuries. Set against the backdrop of the Jazz Age, Nazi Germany, and World War II Detroit, the novel is a fantastical family saga about the fluidity of tradition, faith, and identity.Catherine Bell, author of Rush of Shadows (winner of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House 2014 Fiction Prize), called the story “[i]ncredible, overwhelming, compelling.” Terence Hawkins, author of American Neolithic (named one of the Best Indie Books of 2014 by Kirkus Reviews), says, “This is an amazing debut novel—wildly imaginative, powerfully written, funny, and deeply humane.”When not wearing my fiction writer hat, I practice consumer protection law in Washington, D.C. Re