Rachel Robbins

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

When it comes to family, there are always things to discover and mysteries to solve. Take author Rachel Robbins; what she discovered about her maternal grandparents Leon and Phyllis Fisher became the inspiration of her debut novel, “The Sound of a Thousand Stars”.

Robbins’ book is being published by Alcove Press, which is distributed by Penguin Random House. Despite living in Chicago, where she is a professor at Malcom X College, Robbins will premiere her novel in Los Alamos. Samizdat Teahouse and Bookstore and Los Alamos Arts Council will host a dinner and talk Oct. 8 at Fuller Lodge. The dinner will be held at 5:30 p.m., followed at 6 p.m. with the talk.

“We are just thrilled to be able to host an author, an author from a major publisher,” Samizdat Owner Jill Lang said. “We are thrilled to leverage the County resources we have and the organizations we have to bring an author of this caliber.”

She added that it would be tough for the bookstore to host Robbins by itself but with the County resources and assistance from organizations such as the Los Alamos Arts Council, it was possible.

Robbins said her grandparent’s stint living and working in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project intrigued her and their story inspired her to write her own. In fact, she said she is following her grandmother’s lead.

“My grandmother actually wrote a book, so I am following her footsteps,” Robbins said.

Her grandmother’s book was a memoir titled “Los Alamos Experience”. It was published in 1985 in Japan, where Robbins’ grandparents briefly lived.

Robbins explained her grandfather, who was a physicist, took a class taught by J. Robert Oppenheimer and he was later recruited to work on the Manhattan Project. Her grandmother followed him to Los Alamos, not knowing what her husband was doing.

Her grandparents lived in Los Alamos for two years – 1944 to 1946. Robbins said her mother did not live in Los Alamos, but her uncles did.  The family may not live in town anymore, but they left a mark; Robbins said she and her mother recently traveled to Los Alamos and saw her grandmother’s book displayed in the Hans Bethe house. Robbins said she plans to donate her own book to the Los Alamos Historical Society as well as letters written by her grandmother.

Robbins said she was very close to her grandparents, but they were very tight-lipped about their time in Los Alamos. Through interviews and research, however, Robbins pieced together her own story inspired by what she learned about her grandparents.

“The Sound of a Thousand Stars” is about a female scientist.

Robbins said through her book she wanted to preserve her grandmother’s legacy. She said the novel has a love story; after her grandmother died, her grandfather started telling more stories and she started documenting them.

It was after her grandfather died that Robbins started working on her novel.

“I started writing it on the airplane on the flight home from my grandfather’s funeral,” she said.

Robbins described writing the novel as cathartic. She added she is “very curious of what my grandparents would think of this book.”

Work on the book allowed Robbins to make a lot of incredible discoveries. For instance, she met and interviewed Benjamin Bederson and Murray Peshkin who worked in the Special Engineering Detachment during the Manhattan Project.

Bederson described how he was a bunk mate with the infamous spy David Greenglass. He was also part of a covert club called the Mushroom Society. Robbins said the members stole electrical parts from the labs to play music at night. They called themselves the Mushroom Society because mushrooms grow at night.

Another significant discovery, Robbins said, was when a friend of hers reviewed the book to fact check it and for sensitivity, she learned that her friend’s grandfather lived in Hiroshima in the 1940s but was out of town when the bomb fell.

So, what do Robbins’ family think of the book? Robbins said so far no one except her husband has read the book.

“I am nervous for it … they will get to read it soon,” she said.

Robbins said airing family secrets is a little scary – even if it is a piece of fiction, people can connect the dots.

“That can be scary, but it is important to tell these stories,” she said.

Her family will be attending the event Oct. 8. 

Robbins said she is looking forward to the event, which will include a conversation with representatives from the Manhattan National Historical Park as well as a book signing. Samizdat will carry copies of her book. Robbins said she was connected to Lang through her editor.

“They are an amazing bookstore, working with them, with Jill is just a delight,” she said. “She has been so supportive and so eager. I am all about supporting independent bookstores. I am thrilled that I got connected to her.”

Robbins is already at work on her second novel, which she said is much lighter than her debut. She said it is a murder mystery story with a feminism lense.

For anyone hoping to get their own story published, Robbins has some advice. It is a tough field, she said, the finish line always seems to be moving and sometimes even the wins feel like losses.

However, “keep going and do it for yourself,” Robbins said.

Phyillis Fisher photographed in the Los Alamos area in the 1940s. Fisher, along with her husband, Leon, inspired their granddaughter Rachel Robbins to write her novel, ‘The Sound of a Thousand Stars’. Courtesy photo