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Beyond the Hedge: A Fable for Old and Young

In these pages a highly civilized society of long-lived hedgehogs is forced to consider what lies beyond the safety of their hedge.
This playful tale gives us courage to grapple with the unknown.

Patricia Adler has created a visual delight. Beyond the Hedge is an engaging story. It introduces ideas that can stimulate deep conversations. What does it mean to look beyond the hedge? And how can we build safe communities, where elders have opportunities to pass on their wisdom to younger generations? We have much to learn from the well-educated hedgehogs in this fable.
—Rona Renner, RN author of Is That Me Yelling?

A family memoir laced with vodka and Jewish wit. Between the punch lines
reality intrudes and exposes family secrets.

Patricia Adler does something remarkable in this memoir: She weaves together the wonderful old Jewish jokes she was raised on, while capturing the deeper meaning of humor—the darkness it attempts to both explain and hide. Like her father whose voice we hear throughout the book, Pat is a fabulous storyteller, describing the explosiveness and hurt, the anger and love, that, along with the humor, made up the complexity of her family’s life. —Wendy Lichtman, author of Secrets, Lies, and Algebra

This is a coming-of-age novel for the over-fifty set. It will resonate for readers with ‘difficult’ family members, which is to say, most of us. —Peter Y. Sussman, editor of
Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford

How do we love difficult people to whom we are bound by blood? How do we keep our sanity, integrity, and compassion in the face of a parent’s toxic rage? What keeps adult children from simply walking away? Pat Adler’s memoir speaks honestly to these question while telling the story of a blusterous old California family. —Tom Weidlinger, documentary filmmaker

Tell a story that makes them laugh and cry, for God’s sake, and don’t bore them. —Henry Sinton, Patricia Adler’s father