Forest Dark : A Novel

National BestsellerA New York TimesNotable Book of 2017Named Best Book of 2017 by Esquire,Times Literary Supplement, Elle Magazine, LitHub, Publishers Weekly, Financial Times, Guardian, Refinery29, Popsugar,andGlobe and Mail"e;A brilliant novel. I am full of admiration."e; Philip Roth"e;One of Americas most important novelists"e; (New York Times), the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The History of Love, conjures an achingly beautiful and breathtakingly original novel about personal transformation that interweaves the stories of two disparate individualsan older lawyer and a young novelistwhose transcendental search leads them to the same Israeli desert.Jules Epstein, a man whose drive, avidity, and outsized personality have, for sixty-eight years, been a force to be reckoned with, is undergoing a metamorphosis. In the wake of his parents deaths, his divorce from his wife of more than thirty years, and his retirement from the New York legal firm where he was a partner, hes felt an irresistible need to give away his possessions, alarming his children and perplexing the executor of his estate. With the last of his wealth, he travels to Israel, with a nebulous plan to do something to honor his parents. In Tel Aviv, he is sidetracked by a charismatic American rabbi planning a reunion for the descendants of King David who insists that Epstein is part of that storied dynastic line. He also meets the rabbis beautiful daughter who convinces Epstein to become involved in her own projecta film about the life of David being shot in the desertwith life-changing consequences.But Epstein isnt the only seeker embarking on a metaphysical journey that dissolves his sense of self, place, and history. Leaving her family in Brooklyn, a young, well-known novelist arrives at the Tel Aviv Hilton where she has stayed every year since birth. Troubled by writers block and a failing marriage, she hopes that the hotel can unlock a dimension of realityand her own perception of lifethat has been closed off to her. But when she meets a retired literature professor who proposes a project she cant turn down, shes drawn into a mystery that alters her life in ways she could never have imagined. Bursting with life and humor, Forest Dark is a profound, mesmerizing novel of metamorphosis and self-realizationof looking beyond all that is visible towards the infinite.