California Dreaming : A Novel

Having grown up on stories of her mother's wild youth in California, Elena Berg relocates from New England to the Bay Area in 2011 for a placement as an English teacher with Teach for America.Once there, she is eager to inspire a love of poetry and literature in her diverse but underprivileged students.Her own grandfather-a Holocaust survivor-was a storyteller and teacher who touched the lives of his students for years to come.Elena’s mother followed in his footsteps, leaving behind the hippie lifestyle of her twenties to become a university professor. But Elena quickly finds herself feeling disconnected from teaching, unable to inspire her students, and before long, she grows disillusioned with her career.She transitions to a role in an education technology startup-though she questions her decision, her motivations, and her values. Coming of age between the Occupy and #MeToo movements and against the backdrop of the 2016 election and California's ever-worsening fire season, Elena reck