“The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern” chosen for CBS New York’s Book Club

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You voted “The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern” by Lynda Cohen Loigman as the next book for Club Calvi. The novel is about second chances and how it’s never too late for new beginnings. 
In a video message to readers, Loigman said “when this story opens, Augusta Stern is about to 80 years old. She’s just been forced to retire from her job as a pharmacist, and she’s been lying about her age for years. She moves down to Florida to an active senior community and on her very first day there she runs into Irving Rifkin, the man who was her father’s delivery boy at his pharmacy in Brooklyn and the man who broke her heart 60 years earlier.”
There’s an excerpt below and a link to purchase the book. You read along with us and join our conversation about the book on our Facebook page. 
The CBS New York Book Club focuses on books connected to the Tri-State Area in their plots and/or authors. The books may contain adult themes. 
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From the publisher: On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier.
As a teenager growing up in 1920’s Brooklyn, Augusta’s role model was her father, Solomon Stern, the trusted owner of the local pharmacy and the neighborhood expert on every ailment. But when Augusta’s mother dies and Great Aunt Esther moves in, Augusta can’t help but be drawn to Esther’s curious methods. As a healer herself, Esther offers Solomon’s customers her own advice—unconventional remedies ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions.
As Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, she is torn between loyalty to her father and fascination with her great aunt, all while navigating a budding but complicated relationship with Irving. Desperate for clarity, she impulsively uses Esther’s most potent elixir with disastrous consequences. Disillusioned and alone, Augusta vows to reject Esther’s enchantments forever.
Sixty years later, confronted with Irving, Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago and how did her plan go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it’s too late? 
Lynda Cohen Loigman lives in New York. 
“The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern” by Lynda Cohen Loigman (ThriftBooks) $22

Introduction:
Augusta’s dream is to be a pharmacist like her father. But when her great aunt Esther comes to stay with her family, Augusta is torn between her father’s scientific approach to healing and Esther’s mysterious alternative methods. In this scene, Esther allows Augusta to watch her work and begins to teach Augusta some of her secrets.
***
The night following Harriet Dornbush’s visit, Augusta slept with one eye open. Long after midnight, when she heard her aunt stir, Augusta followed her into the kitchen. Esther knew that Augusta was trailing her, but she didn’t say a word as she moved down the hall, carrying the wooden apothecary case that she had taken from inside her trunk. Her long silver hair hung loose down her back, and the bottom of her silky blue robe skimmed over the wooden floor.
This time—for Augusta’s benefit—she whispered the names of her ingredients: pomegranate seeds, black cohosh, stinging nettle, raspberry leaves, viburnum. The spicy aroma of licorice root hit the back of Augusta’s nostrils.
The moon showed itself as if Esther had summoned it, peering in through the window like a dutiful friend, illuminating the mortar until the brass seemed to glow. As she ground the ingredients, she hummed her strange song. An entreaty. A wish. An incantation. A prayer. The pestle blazed bright from between her long fingers, until the room smelled of potency, abundance, and hope.
When she was finished grinding the herbs, she deposited the powder in another square of clean white muslin and tied it with string. This time, she handed the mortar to Augusta and asked her to wipe it clean. It was heavier than Augusta expected, and felt rougher to the touch. “How long have you had this?” Augusta asked.
“It belonged to my mother, her mother before her, and her mother before that. One day, perhaps, it will belong to you.”
Augusta felt her pulse quicken in her veins. “Do you really think so?”
Esther nodded. “I told you that you had the heart of a healer, and I believe it to be true. Of course, the path will not be easy. There is a great deal to learn and you will have to work very hard.”
“I’ll work harder than anyone,” Augusta insisted. “But if I want to learn from you, does that mean I shouldn’t go to pharmacy college?”
“Of course you should go to college!” Aunt Esther snapped. “When I was young, I had no such opportunity. My brothers were sent to study in Lviv, but my sisters and I were not allowed to go. I was as bright as you are now—equally curious, equally ambitious. But because I wasn’t born a man, I was forced to stay at home. I learned everything I know of plants and potions from my mother and my grandmother. But if I’d had the chance to go to university, who knows how much more knowledge I might have collected? You must go to college, Goldie. You must do what I could not.”
“Did your mother and grandmother teach your sisters, too?”
Aunt Esther shook her head. “Neither of my sisters wanted to learn. One married a farmer and one a stonemason. When I grew older, they were ashamed of me—ashamed of their strange spinster sister. What was more, they did not like that I advertised my knowledge. My mother and grandmother had kept their skills private, but I chose to share mine with others. Many in my village were grateful to me, especially when my powders cured them of illness. But others accused me of being a witch, a Baba Yaga of the forest. They said I flew above the trees at night, sitting inside a wooden mortar, like a witch on a broom. They said I steered with an enchanted pestle, inflicting disease on whoever wronged me. They blamed me whenever they had a cough, or if they sneezed or had a toothache.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Augusta said. But she didn’t feel entirely convinced.
Esther raised her silver eyebrows. “I wanted to study medicine and healing. If I had been born a man, they would have called me an apothecary. Perhaps even a doctor, if I’d had the training. But because I was born a woman, they called me a witch instead. To ignorant men, every gifted woman is a witch.”
“But you know things my father doesn’t know,” said Augusta. “You’re able to help people in ways that he can’t. How?”
“If a person is denied a formal education,” said Esther, “she must be inventive in her quest for knowledge. She must study the folktales and the old stories. She must learn however she can. She must use every tool at her disposal.”
“Like your mortar?”
“Like my mortar.”
“Will you tell me about the words inside it? The words you are always repeating? Please, will you explain what they mean?”
“The words themselves could not be simpler. They state the mortar’s purpose, that is all.” She held up the mortar and pointed inside it as she recited the words in English.
To ease the pain of those who suffer
To repair the bodies of those who are ill
To restore the minds of those in need
“But if the words are so simple,” Augusta pressed, “why are they so important?”
“Must words be complicated or unusual for us to believe in them?”
“Maybe not, but you still haven’t explained why the words are necessary at all. Words can’t simply make someone better. Words don’t have that kind of power.”
Esther put all of her tins and bottles back in the proper places in her case. She stared at Augusta for a good long while. “Words can do anything,” she said. “A kind word can fix a person’s spirit. A cruel one can break a person’s heart. Wicked words have caused wars, and honest words have made peace. Why shouldn’t they be able to heal?”
From The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman. Copyright © 2024 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
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