The Beautiful Possible : A Novel
Author(s): Amy Gottlieb
This epic, enthralling debut novel—in the vein of Nicole Krauss’ The History of Love—follows a postwar love triangle between an American rabbi, his wife, and a German-Jewish refugee.
Spanning seventy years and several continents—from a refugee’s shattered dreams in 1938 Berlin, to a discontented American couple in the 1950s, to a young woman’s life in modern-day Jerusalem—this epic, enthralling novel tells the braided love story of three unforgettable characters. In 1946, Walter Westhaus, a German Jew who spent the war years at Tagore’s ashram in India, arrives at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where he meets Sol Kerem, a promising rabbinical student. A brilliant nonbeliever, Walter is the perfect foil for Sol’s spiritual questions—and their extraordinary connection is too wonderful not to share with Sol’s free-spirited fiancée Rosalie. Soon Walter and Rosalie are exchanging notes, sketches, and secrets, and begin a transcendent love affair in his attic room, a temple of dusty tomes and whispered poetry. Months later they shatter their impossible bond, retreating to opposite sides of the country—Walter to pursue an academic career in Berkeley and Rosalie and Sol to lead a congregation in suburban New York. A chance meeting years later reconnects Walter, Sol, and Rosalie—catching three hearts and minds in a complex web of desire, heartbreak, and redemption. With extraordinary empathy and virtuosic skill, The Beautiful Possible considers the hidden boundaries of marriage and faith, and the mysterious ways we negotiate our desires.
Review(s):
“I’ve never read anything quite like this lyrical and infinitely wise novel…It’s about faith and love and lust and mysticism and poetry and the eroticism of spices…Mostly, though, it’s about how a book can be a wonder. If books could shimmer, this one would.”
“THE BEAUTIFUL POSSIBLE is a deeply felt and evocative novel that draws on history, memory, all the senses, and the author’s own considerable conjuring skills. Alive with characters and unafraid to examine ambiguous emotional complexities, this is a moving debut.”
“Amy Gottlieb has written a beautiful first novel…this book is a meditation on faith and religion, on love and faithfulness, on feminism, on the times in which the characters lived, and on the meaning of life…a truly satisfying novel.”
“Gottlieb tells her story in evocative prose, juxtaposing vivid physical details with unsolvable riddles of faith. Her three protagonists toss mystical phrases back and forth, less interested in answers than in the process of intellectual wrestling…[THE BEAUTIFUL POSSIBLE] glimmers with moments of hope.”
“Always engaging…sure to resonate with many readers. Its greatest strengths lie in its ability to capture the essence of the religious life without any preciousness…in order to examine and attempt to resolve the tensions between Jewish law and the sometimes contradictory, often mysterious, workings of the human heart.”
“A fable for the modern era, a love story steeped in biblical text and mystical yearning-- The Beautiful Possible illuminates the struggle to find one’s identity in a world rife with expectation and judgment.”
“[Gottlieb’s] eclectic amalgam of inspirations lends an extraordinary air of magic and allure to THE BEAUTIFUL POSSIBLE, inviting the reader to push their imagination to the limit and explore unthought—of possibilitiesa brief glimpse of the truly mystical.”
“Gottlieb’s debut novel is an ambitious study of faith, doubt, and desire both erotic and spiritual.”
“Gottlieb’s first novel carries readers along with its artful weaving together of Talmudic concepts and complex human emotions.”
“This enchanting novel is a “braid” of romance, passion, betrayal, of marriage, family, and loss…Read it once for its story, again for its wisdom, and one more time for its poetry and truth.”
ISBN: 9780062383365