MAY 4 • 2023 | 49

H

otel Cuba, a novel by former Michigan 
resident Aaron Hamburger, releases 
in May to tell the basic immigration 
story experienced by his grandmother, Ethel 
Lansky Fishman, who was born in what is now 
Belarus, went to Cuba until she could enter the 
United States and settled in the 
Detroit area. 
The book, essentially dealing 
with incidents in the 1920s and 
hurdles faced by immigrants, 
deviates from facts as the author 
sought to enhance the storyline. 
“It was such a joy to work on 
this book,
” said Hamburger, a 
graduate of Hillel Day School, Detroit Country 
Day School and the University of Michigan. “I 
think of the various places and time periods 
that I got to travel back to using my imagina-
tion. 
“Trying to see the immense culture shock 
that she must have experienced going from 
this wintry, starving pogrom to the warmth 
of Havana with the tropical setting as well as 
the music, food and language also remained 
important. 
“I just love that sense of contrast.
”
Hamburger, 49, knew his grandmother as 
she was in her 80s and 90s. He felt that writing 
the novel would give him the chance to know 
her as a young woman. Although she was able 
to give the broad outlines of her background in 
recordings, he had to fill in the details.
The lives of his grandparents as immigrants 
established the foundation for him to launch 
work on Hotel Cuba (Harper Perennial) in 2017, 
with the circulation of earlier books — short 
stories in The View from Stalin’s Head as well as 
novels in Faith for Beginners and Nirvana Is Here.
Hamburger said that he feels like the issues 
of faith, family and identity come through in all 
of his books.
“I’ve always felt a special affinity for immi-
grants because I worshipped my grandparents,
” 
the author said. “They were heroes to me, and 
I was very concerned about immigrants when 
people were talking about doing terrible things 
to immigrants. 
“I joined a group of writers going to Capitol 
Hill — I live in Washington now — and we 
were going to talk to all the senators to advo-
cate for progressive causes. I met with Sen. 
Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and she abso-
lutely agreed with me. She said, ‘You’re a writer; 
tell your grandmother’s story.
’”

As a result of that suggestion, Hamburger 
wrote a chapter to check how it would feel 
working on a book on that subject.
“Then I happened to go to a reading of 
an historical novelist named Dolan Perkins-
Valdez, and she said the way she started her 
historical fiction was writing a draft of the 
story to figure out what she needed to figure 
out,” Hamburger said. 
“If you do all the research first, you can 
go forever researching. By writing the story 
first, it creates the contours of what needs 
to be figured out, such as how telephones 
worked at that time and how passports 
worked in 1922. 
“That approach gave me specific avenues 
to research, and it also gave me a lot of free-
dom to work. It was a back-and-forth pro-
cess of writing and researching. The research 
would suggest plot points for the story, and 
it was a fun, dynamic process.”
Part of the research drew the author to 
Cuba, exploring the neighborhood where 
the Jews were concentrated at the time 
known by his grandmother.
Hamburger, who lived in Oak Park and 
West Bloomfield, returns to Michigan at 
least twice a year. He attends Passover seders 
and a University of Michigan football game. 
Mostly, he wants to visit with his mom, Hilda 
Hamburger, who lives in West Bloomfield.
Besides writing books, Hamburger teaches 
creative writing at various institutions, in 
person at George Washington University 
in Washington, D.C. and remotely through 
Stonecoast MFA sponsored by the University 
of Southern Maine.
“My grandmother was a woman of few but 
emphatic words,
” Hamburger said. “She left 
a lot of gaps. I heard different stories from 
talking to different people, and I was able to 
come up with what I think really happened.
“My grandmother’s sister came to Detroit 
to marry her boyfriend from back home. My 
grandmother came to Detroit for the wed-
ding. While she was at the wedding, she sees 
that the groom has a brother. They ended 
up having a romance, got married and were 
inseparable for 62 years. They belonged to 
Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
“I hope readers enjoy the book as an excit-
ing and beautiful story. I also hope it makes 
concrete for people what immigrants went 
through and continue to go through to come 
to this country.
” 

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

Native Detroiter tells his 
grandmother’s immigration 
story in new historical novel.

Native Detroiter tells his 

Aaron 
Hamburger

SUZANNE CHESSLER 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Details
Aaron Hamburger can be heard talking 
about his book digitally according to the 
schedule listed below:

May 8: Virtual Panel on What’s New 
in Historical Fiction with Colin Mustful 
at 8 p.m. ET.
May 18: Virtual Talk on The Writer’s 
Center (Bethesda, MD) at 7 p.m. ET.
May 21: Virtual Talk with Literary Modiin 
at 1 p.m. ET.
June 6: Virtual Talk with Society of 
Fellows of the American Academy in 
Rome at 6 p.m. ET in conversation with 
Dave King.
Aug. 25: In-person at the Sidetrack 
Bookshop, 325 S. Washington, 
Royal Oak, 7 p.m.

