Mary-Kay Wilmers, the editor of the London Review of Books, began researching her remarkable family history when the Soviet Union was still a going concern. The result is The Eitingons, a work of astonishing scope and originality that traces several key figures in the Eitingon family--from Leonid, a KGB assassin who organized the assassination of Trotsky in Mexico, to Max, a psychoanalyst, a protege of Freud's and, the latest research suggests, a KGB paymaster, to Motty, a fur dealer whose Soviet connections made him the largest trader in the world. Shedding light on some of the darkest corners of the last century, Wilmers' book functions simultaneously as a family memoir and a vivid study of the twentieth century.

On May 3, Wilmers will speak in conversation with Lapham's Quarterly founder and editor Lewis Lapham about the processes of retrieving, curating, and presenting history in literary form. Lapham's, which recently published a Winter 2012 issue organized around the theme "Family," collects historical pieces from figures that span Friedrich Engels to Larry David, exploring the ways in which threads from the annals and archives of history continue to intersect with our contemporary society.

Seating at this venue is limited; RSVP by calling 212-255-4022.

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