In postwar New York City, Sol Kerem is a serious rabbinical student, poring over Talmudic texts and preparing to marry the beautiful, whip-smart Rosalie Wachs. A rabbi's daughter, Rosalie longs to take her place as Sol's domestic and intellectual equal. Both Sol's and Rosalie's lives are irrevocably changed when Walter Westhaus arrives at the seminary. In her debut novel, The Beautiful Possible, Amy Gottlieb traces the intricate braiding together of three lives.
A German Jew whose fiancée and father were murdered by the Nazis, Walter spent the war years in India, until an American mystic convinced him to emigrate to the U.S. A misfit among the rabbinical students, Walter nevertheless becomes Sol's chavrusa (study partner) and, eventually, Rosalie's lover. Over the next several decades, Walter builds an academic career in California, and Sol and Rosalie lead a suburban synagogue and raise their children. But the three of them remain connected, with powerful and far-reaching consequences.
Gottlieb tells her story in evocative prose, juxtaposing vivid physical details (like Walter's green Indian kurta) 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. Walter gives the book's clearest definition of belief, calling it a "messy brew of imposed grace." Gottlieb's story is also messy, but it glimmers with moments of hope. Like the characters, The Beautiful Possible is "a little bit broken and a little bit radiant--often both at the same time." --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams