“Coal and Ashes” Presentation & Book Signing

Join us for a discussion with Dr Kupchella about his newly released book – Coal and Ashes. This is a historical fiction novel based on Dr. K’s family’s immigration to the United States. It begins ten thousand years ago, when a lone man narrowly avoids death, thus keeping in motion a lineage that will continue across millenia. From his descendants emerge Mary and Martin in Lithuania—two young people whose lives will be shaped by loss, a world at war, and a love story. After Mary and Martin immigrate to America, they’re brought together by circumstance. They build a life in Pennsylvania’s coal country, even as The Great Depression, Pennsylvania’s “Coal Wars,’ and the shadows of two world wars loom. Across the ocean, their friends and family face persecution, multiple military invasions, and the horrors of the Holocaust. Divided into sweeping parts—from imagined ancestors and medieval predecessors to modern immigrants—this epic war saga explores the different kinds of love, the consequences of choice, and the fragile threads that connect generations.