Paradise Park

Allegra Goodman has delighted readers with her critically acclaimed collections Total Immersion and The Family Markowitz and her celebrated first novel Kaaterskill Falls which was a national bestseller and a National Book Award finalist. . Abandoned by her folk-dancing partner Gary in a Honolulu hotel room Sharon realizes she could return to Boston—and her estranged family—or listen to that little voice inside herself. The voice that asks: “How come Gary got to pursue his causes while all I got to pursue was him?” Thus with an open heart a soul on fire and her meager possessions (a guitar two Indian gauze skirts a macramé bikini and her grandfather’s silver watch) Sharon begins her own spiritual quest. Ever the optimist she is sure at each stage that she has struck it rich “spiritually speaking”—until she comes up empty. Then in a karmic convergence of events Sharon starts on the path home to Judaism. Still even as she embraces her tradition Sharon’s irrepressible self tugs at her sleeve. Especially when she meets Mikhail falls truly in love at last and discovers what even she could not imagine—her destiny.