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September Virtual Tour: Maria La Divina by Jerome Charyn

“As he did in The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Charyn here reimagines the life of a complex and talented woman, this time the diva of divas, Maria Callas…A bravura performance that hits all the right notes and is sure to delight opera devotees and fans of strong women characters.” – Library Journal, starred review

“In the spirited biographical novel MARIA LA DIVINA, the allure of an opera legend is rendered with humanizing grit.” – Foreword Reviews

“Everyone in Callas’ world is drawn in depth, while this vivid portrait of the diva is compelling and dramatic without being idealistically flattering. An excellent choice for biographical fiction and opera fans.” – Booklist

“Charyn elicits sympathy for his complex lead through nuanced character work, and he manages to channel the excitement of Callas’s performances. This is a marvel.” – Publishers Weekly

“A deftly crafted work of historical biographical fiction, MARIA LA DIVINA once again showcases author Jerome Charyn as a novelist of extraordinary literary ability.” –Midwest Book Review

“Charyn impressively covers events, places, and people (even an older Winston Churchill) with a solid pace that never stalls…The complex genius of the Divine Diva will stay with any reader of this work.” – Historical Novels Review

Maria Callas, called La Divina, is widely recognized as the greatest diva who ever lived. In his new novel, MARIA LA DIVINA (Bellevue Literary Press; September 16, 2025), Jerome Charyn’s Callas springs to life as the headstrong, mercurial, and charismatic artist who captivated generations of fans, thrilling audiences with her brilliant performances and defiant personality.

Callas was one of the first divas to come from an impoverished background. As an outsider, she was shunned by the Italian opera houses, but through sheer force of will and the power and range of her voice, she broke through the invisible wall to sing at La Scala and headline at the Metropolitan Opera, forging an unforgettable career. Adored by celebrities and statesmen, the notable and notorious alike, her every movement was shadowed by both music critics and gossip columnists—until, having lost her voice, she died alone in an opulent, mausoleum-like Paris apartment.

In Charyn’s inimitable style, MARIA LA DIVINA humanizes the celebrated diva, revealing the mythical artist as a woman who survived hunger, war, and loneliness to reach the heights of acclaim.

To celebrate the release of MARIA LA DIVINA, we are hosting a pub week virtual book tour from September 14 – 22 featuring this stellar list of book influencers. Follow along for features, reviews, excerpts, and GIVEAWAYS:

Sunday, September 14 Suzy Approved Book Reviews

Sunday, September 14 Lexijava

Monday, September 15 We Love Big Books And We Cannot Lie

Monday, September 15 Books and Coffee MX

Tuesday, September 16 Nurse Bookie

Tuesday, September 16 What Is That Book About

Wednesday, September 17 Cassie’s Book Reviews

Wednesday, September 17 Nissa The Bookworm

Thursday, September 18 Sarah’s Bookish Reviews

Thursday, September 18 We Break For Books

Friday, September 19 Rozier Reads And Wine

Friday, September 19 Karen’s Library

Saturday, September 20 Kim Reads and Reads

Saturday, September 20 Red Reviews 4 You

Monday, September 22 The Maddie Hatter

Monday, September 22 Storeybook Reviews

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Pub Week Virtual Book Tour for RAVAGE & SON by Jerome Charyn Aug 21 – 25

“Rollicking. . . . Ravage & Son brings New York City’s criminal underground to vibrant life.”

—Foreword Reviews

“Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights has nothing on Charyn’s Lower East Side. . . . A bold effort.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Charyn continues to deliver boisterous and flavorful prose.”

—Publishers Weekly

A master storyteller’s novel of crime, corruption, and antisemitism in early 20th-century Manhattan, available on August 22, 2023 from Bellevue Literary Press

Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century—in a dark mirror.

Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers. He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals. Charged with rooting out the Jewish “Mr. Hyde,” a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man.

A lurid tale of revenge, this wildly evocative, suspenseful noir is vintage Jerome Charyn.

Below is our stellar group of bloggers who will share reviews and features and offer giveaways during publication week of August 21st:

Monday, August 21 – We Love Big Books And We Cannot Lie AND The Book Connection

Tuesday, August 22 – Bookphile Belle

Wednesday, August 23 – Nurse Bookie AND What Is That Book About

Thursday, August 24 – Sue the Bookie AND Andrea C. Lowry Reads

Friday, August 25 – Lit by Lilli AND The Book Decoder

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Blog Tour for Jerome Charyn’s Latest Historical Fiction Kicks Off 1/6!

The blog tour for critically acclaimed author, Jerome Charyn’s latest novel, THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and His Times kicks off on Sunday, January 6, the 100th anniversary of Teddy Roosevelt’s death. Check out the full schedule.

In this novel, which The Washington Post calls “tremendous fun” and Kirkus Reviews calls, “colorful, entertaining” in its starred review, Charyn gives new dimension to Roosevelt, revealing Manhattan’s swampy underbelly after the Civil War, TR’s farcical and dangerous expeditions to the Dakota Badlands, and his personal anguish at losing his mother and wife on the same day.  Like the best of E.L. Doctorow, historical detail is supported by a keen grasp of language and marked by a lack of sentimentality about the past.  With a colorful supporting cast—including Buffalo Bill Cody, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leon Czolgosz (President McKinley’s assassin), plus Josephine, the loveable mountain lion who was the mascot of the Rough Riders (seen with Roosevelt on the cover), and the Rough Riders themselves, whom Roosevelt never deserted, THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING is historical fiction and Jerome Charyn at their very best. 

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Jerome Charyn’s New Novel About Jerzy Kosinksi is Getting a lot of Attention

Critically acclaimed author, Jerome Charyn is getting a lot of attention for his new novel, JERZY that is just out from Bellevue Literary Press.

In JERZY, Jerome Charyn lends his unmistakable style to this most American story of personal disintegration, told through the voices of multiple narrators—a homicidal actor, a dominatrix, and Joseph Stalin’s daughter—who each provide insights into the shifting facets of Kosinski’s personality. The story unfolds like a Russian nesting doll, eventually revealing the lost child beneath layers of trauma, while touching on the nature of authenticity, the atrocities of WWII, the allure of sadomasochism, and the fickleness of celebrity.

Ruth Franklin wrote this great review and fascinating article for The New Yorker in which she describes the book as “a moving attempt to trace the connections between Kosinski’s wartime struggles and postwar fictions.

Benjamin Markovits in his review for The New York Times Book Review writes that JERZY is “a novel with a light touch that’s still capable of lifting heavy subjects. Charyn knows what he wants to do and knows how to do it.”

And JERZY was included in Jane Ciabattari’s 5 Books Making News This Week column for LitHub for the week of April 4th.

If you are looking for an intriguing and engaging book to read this Spring, add JERZY by Jerome Charyn to your list. This reader’s guide will also help make it an excellent choice for your next book club selection.

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Jerome Charyn Blogs for Jewish Book Council

Jerome Charyn’s new collection of short stories, BITTER BRONX continues to receive great reviews!

Most recently it is mentioned in this month’s O, The Oprah Magazine and described, “With echoes of Walt Whitman’s fantastical city and the hard-boiled territory of Mickey Spilane BITTER BRONX elevates the borough’s stoops and sidewalks into the realm of myth.”

This week he has been blogging for the Jewish Book Council’s Visiting Scribe series.  His third and final blog is about going “Back to the Bronx.”

Read all three of his blogs on the Jewish Book Council’s website.

Bitter-Bronx

 

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