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Do we ever know about the lives of our parents and the secrets of their past?

“Asylum: A Memoir of Family Secrets,” recounts Judy Bolton-Fasman’s search for answers to the mysteries of her Cuban-born, Sephardic mother and her elusive, Ashkenazi, Yale-educated father.

Judy becomes Judy Bolton, girl detective, to pierce her father’s impenetrable silence and challenge her mother’s fabrications. In adulthood, Judy receives a letter from her father which she believes is the portal to his secrets. However, he instructs her to burn the unopened letter. With a flick of a match, the answers to her family’s secrets are gone.

Judy Bolton-Fasman is a well known author and a four-time recipient of the Simon Rockower Award.