The Great Conjunction
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Published by: Munn Avenue Press
Release Date: September 23, 2026
Pages: 278
ISBN13: 978-1969679735
Overview
What if the planets had more influence on our lives than we imagine?
Mysterious strangers, symbolic objects, celestial events, and unseen forces weave together a richly imagined tale about love, loss, resilience, and the invisible threads connecting strangers across generations.
As the COVID-19 pandemic brings New York City to a standstill, two women, separated by circumstance yet mysteriously connected by fate, find their lives transformed in ways neither could have imagined.
Bunny Posner has spent a lifetime surrounding herself with carefully collected treasures, each one preserving a memory too precious to lose. But after a devastating cancer diagnosis and a difficult conversation with her son, she’s forced to confront an impossible question: What becomes of a lifetime of memories when no one else understands their meaning?
Across the city, Fiona, an eccentric tarot reader, loses everything overnight when a fire destroys her home and business, sending her into homelessness during one of the darkest chapters in modern history. As she struggles to rebuild her life and protect her daughter, unexpected encounters begin to reveal that coincidence may not be coincidence at all.
Blending literary fiction with magical realism, The Great Conjunction is an unforgettable novel about memory, mortality, family, and the extraordinary power of hope. Thought-provoking, heartfelt, and infused with wonder, it explores the treasures we hold onto, the people who shape us, and the enduring connections that transcend time.
Perfect for readers who enjoy character-driven fiction with emotional depth, historical resonance, and a touch of the mystical, The Great Conjunction invites you to discover a story where every object holds a memory, every encounter has meaning, and every life is part of something far greater.
Praise
"Annette Berkovits’ The Great Conjunction is a deceptively simple tale of loss and redemption that spans the last half-century. But this masterful work that marries fiction and magical realism is far more. The novel creates a hidden world of guardian angels appearing in chance, ordinary encounters, and animated curios imbued with complex human qualities. These magical characters seamlessly and delightfully interact with the two women protagonists whose lives circle each other like the planets. An unseen gravitational force connects them and keeps the reader in suspense regarding if and how they will meet. The juxtaposition of the inevitability of astronomical conjunctions on the one hand and fortune and happenstance on the other is a particularly poignant theme. Memory is the currency of legacy and generational continuity in the novel’s world; it is beautifully positioned somewhere between the permanence of the universe and the fragility of porcelain figurines and human life. Berkovits addresses these weighty issues while engaging the reader in a compelling story. It is told using luxurious language that meticulously attends to detail bringing authenticity to the work. The book left me smiling, satisfied and full of hope."
—Dr. Mark Russ, Author of A Family Guide to Psychiatric Hospitalization, Johns Hopkins University Press
"In the teeming metropolis of New York we follow the intersecting paths of two very different women. Watching them are the magical creatures of the curio cabinet collected over a long and varied life. Can their magic achieve a one in a million miracle? Annette Berkovits’ novel is full of human kindness, the longing to correct the choices of the past, and the enchantment of precious things."
—Maybelle Wallis, MD, Irish Author of Daughter of Strangers
"This intriguing novel is a kaleidoscope of recent social history, politics, and belief systems. Framed by references to both astronomy and astrology, Annette Berkovits uses elements of magical realism to colour the converging life journeys of an impoverished young woman and a wealthy but lonely resident of Manhattan’s Midtown East."
—Joanna Orwin author of Shifting Currents, a novel; award winning New Zealand author
"Against the backdrop of New York navigating the Covid pandemic, this captivating tale of the privileged Bunny and Fiona, a young homeless woman, draws us into a world of chance encounters and celestial orbits both real and magical. Lightly threaded through their narrative is the contained realm of Bunny’s curio figurines, with subtle echoes of the Holocaust. The theme of magical realism underpinning the novel is nuanced, its imagery drawn within spheres both familiar and those awaiting discovery."
—Jo Sorochinsky, Canadian author of Dancing with My Father
"In her latest novel, The Great Conjunction, Annette Berkovits skillfully combines astronomy, astrology, family history, ancient belief systems, and magical realism into a moving story of lost and found connections. The opening setting of present-day New York City shifts back to include the past and then pulls away to include the cosmos. Are there things beyond our understanding that influence our lives?"
—Jo Schaffel, American Author of Somewhere Besides Denver