by Dara Horn
First published 2014
Jacqueline Luria enters graduate school in 1980 as the first woman to pursue a physics doctorate at her university. She has left behind her ultra-Orthodox Jewish community to study the universe's origins in the secular academic world. When she meets Roger Ashkenazi, a mathematician researching fractals, their shared fascination with repeating patterns draws them together. Roger begins questioning his atheist beliefs as their relationship deepens. They marry and have two daughters, but their union collapses despite their scientific insights into order and chaos. Judith grows up average while her sister Josie becomes a prodigy who later creates software to catalog human memories. The sisters' rivalry intensifies as Josie achieves remarkable success. Their parents' failed dreams and expectations shape both daughters' lives in ways that echo through generations. The novel explores how scientific understanding cannot predict human relationships and examines the tension between predetermined fate and personal choice.
Genres: science, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, family-drama, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Graduate School, Orthodox Jewish Community, University
Period: 1980s
39 pages · Kindle Edition · W. W. Norton & Company