Jes­si­ca Sof­fer earned her MFA at Hunter Col­lege. A Her­tog Fel­low and recip­i­ent of the Bernard Cohen Prize, she teach­es fic­tion at Con­necti­cut Col­lege. She grew up in New York City, the daugh­ter of an Iraqi-Jew­ish painter and sculp­tor who immi­grat­ed to the U.S. in 1948. This is her first book.