Eden Robins

Eden Robins is a Chicago-based novelist, essayist, and event producer whose debut combines historical fiction, comedy, and speculative elements. When Franny Stands Up follows Franny Steinberg, a Jewish woman discovering that laughter can create a literal transformative force called a Showstopper. The novel appeared from Sourcebooks Landmark during 2022, and several edition records expand the title to When Franny Stands Up: A Novel. The story moves through Chicago comedy clubs during and after the Second World War, using an invented form of magic to explore performance, women’s public voices, family strain, and recovery. Franny’s path onto the stage connects personal change to the wider shift in work and social expectations during the period. Jewish Book Council classifies the book across historical fiction and speculative fiction, while publisher descriptions emphasize its coming-of-age structure. The result treats comedy as both a craft practiced before an audience and a mechanism for changing relationships.