Highlighting: “Pinkey’s” by Anna Gottlieb. Booklocker.com. 2022. English. Paperback. 114 pages. ISBN-13: 979-888531003.

“This is a book about choices,” said Anna Gotlieb, author of four books, the most recent of which is entitled “Pinkey’s.”

Between the covers of the slim volume is a raft of hefty issues. From a high rise in the city to a small midwestern American town, from Jerusalem to the Golan Heights, the characters cross paths as they grapple with the ties of loyalty, love, faith, anger and angst.

“I have always considered writing a form of therapy,” said Gotlieb. “During the nearly two years of COVID shutdowns, I kept occupied by writing.” The first chapter of “Pinkey’s” was published as a short story in an issue of JewishFiction.net. “As the weeks rolled into months, I found myself thinking about the characters. I needed to find out what was happening to them. So, each day, I would sit at my laptop, a cup of tea at hand, and wait for them to tell me what they were doing, where and why. Their stories ultimately became ‘Pinkey’s.’ ”

A short story entitled “Love” appeared this year in the Jewish Literary Journal. Although the piece was written after “Pinkey’s” was printed, it features one of the characters from the book. Gotlieb laughed, “I think that character was annoyed that I hadn’t waited for him to fill me in on his latest adventure in time to include another chapter in the book.”

Throughout her life, writing has been both a vocation and an avocation for this author. Prior to her recent retirement, she was head of public education for a not-for-profit agency and editor of a magazine published by that agency. Before that, she was a columnist for a daily newspaper for a decade. The first-person column was initially called “The Single Parent.” Following a second marriage, it was titled “Second Thoughts.” “Not that I was having second thoughts,” she was quick to note.

She is married to Joshua Gotlieb. “He is a wonderful editor and my first and best reader,” she said.

The impetus to write a novel was a challenge from her late father. “Prior to my attending college, he dissuaded me from trying to be a novelist. Instead, he encouraged me to learn to be a journalist, a profession which he said would likely offer a more reliable income. I followed his advice. Many years later, he suggested that I try my hand at fiction. Although he is no longer with us, I credit him with the pleasure I have enjoyed in my recent attempts at writing novels.”

Gotlieb continues to write almost daily. “Often, it is just a paragraph about something close to home. I usually print out these small slices of life and stick them in a folder in a file drawer in a closet. One day maybe the grandchildren will read them.”

“Pinkey’s” is available on Amazon. Other books by Gotlieb are “Between the Lines” and “In Other Words,” which are collections of first-person vignettes.“Full Circle” is a novel.