Dora Farkas, Ph.D., was born in Hungary, spent her early childhood in Mexico, and has lived in the United States since she was eleven. All of Dora’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Hungary. Like many Jewish families under the Communist regime, her family did not reveal their Jewish identity to their children until they were teenagers. Despite these circumstances, Dora’s grandmothers preserved their Jewish heritage through the foods they prepared—stuffed cabbage, carp stew, chicken soup with matzo dumplings, and a slow-cooked beef stew called sólet. Dora’s mother, Zsuzsanna, continued these family traditions, recreating their recipes with the best ingredients she could find, even as the family moved across continents. Dora will share her experiences growing up in Communist Hungary and reflect on Jewish life in Hungary today. Her deep connection to culture and food inspired her novel Choice and its sequel, Lost Illusion. Though inspired by Mexican culture, both novels explore universal themes faced by women around the world—the challenges of maintaining cultural identity in changing environments, balancing family and career, and trusting our intuition to guide us through life’s most difficult moments. Both books follow Val, a Mexican American single mother, and her loyal service dog, Maya. In Choice, Val fights against all odds to keep custody of her only daughter. In Lost Illusion, Val must confront her deepest fears after being separated from Maya in the jungles of the Yucatán Peninsula. After the presentation, Dora will be available to sign books. You can pre-order Choice and Lost Illusion on Amazon. Ordering ahead is encouraged, and additional copies will be available for purchase at the event. Choice:https://www.amazon.com/Choice-Dora-Farkas/dp/B0CYH8KZM3/ Lost Illusion:https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Illusion-Choice-Dora-Farkas-ebook/dp/B0FN6SFNDV/ Dora Farkas holds a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from MIT and is also the author of The Smart Way to Your PhD. She has taught writing courses at MIT, Boston University, the University of Connecticut, and the Scripps Research Institute. She is currently working on her third novel.