Connecticut author and journalist Joel Samberg takes readers back to the turbulent 1960s in his new novel Blowin’ in the Wind (2019, Black Rose Writing) – a sweeping Jewish-American suburban saga filled with comedy, drama, and music. 

The story centers around a musical prodigy named Daniel Hillman and his family as they navigate the baffling decade between President Kennedy’s assassination and Woodstock. Daniel struggles as a professional musician, while his sister Lori discovers a spiritual path to her own self-fulfillment.

Taking aim at Baby Boomers, several incidents in the book mirror the author’s own childhood on Long Island.  

“In a way, this book has been in the making for more than 50 years – since I was Daniel’s age when the story begins,” says Samberg. “That’s when a classmate insulted me at a school talent contest, an event not unlike the emotional one Daniel experiences in the novel. It was also around that time when I received a rejection letter from MGM about a screenplay I wrote when I was 12, not dissimilar to the note that Daniel gets from MGM about his own screenplay.”  

Blowin’ in the Wind is also populated with many composites from the author’s family, including his grandfather, a popular comedy songwriter about whom Mr. Samberg wrote a book in 2008 called Grandpa Had a Long One: The Life, Career & Legacy of Benny Bell. 

Samberg began writing professionally at age 17 as a stringer for his hometown newspaper. After college he worked as an assistant editor on trade magazines, then moved into marketing and employee communications. He has written for a host of publications, among them the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, and is the author of four nonfiction books. 

Blowin’ in the Wind is available at all major online booksellers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as from the publisher, Black Rose Writing.