Mark Oppenheimer es autor de cinco libros, incluido Knocking on Heaven’s Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture. He was the religion columnist for The New York Times y ha escrito para GQ, Madre Jones, y La Nación, among other publications. He is also the host of Tableta magazine’s podcast Unorthodox. Squirrel Hill: El tiroteo en la sinagoga Tree of Life y el alma de un barrio (Knopf) is a portrait of the struggles and triumphs of one of America’s oldest Jewish neighborhoods in the wake of unspeakable tragedy. Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, is known for its tight-knit community rich in multigenerational families. On October 27, 2018, a gunman killed 11 Jews worshipping at the town’s Tree of Life synagogue, the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. But rather than focusing on the criminal and his crime, Oppenheimer instead presents the historic, spirited community at the center of this heartbreak. He speaks with residents and nonresidents, Jews and gentiles, survivors and witnesses, teenagers and seniors, activists and historians. Their stories provide a varied and nuanced account of collective grief, love, support, and revival as Oppenheimer also details the difficult dialogue and messy confrontations the community had to face in the process of healing. Kirkus called it “sensitive, and beautifully written … This book abounds with insights for cities facing the aftermath of any mass-casualty event.”
