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Clear Lake

A Novel

Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

Rebecca Lev, a Chicago psychotherapist, is balancing a heavy workload, two demanding kids, and an unhappy second marriage—so when she learns that her father, Charlie, is in trouble, it’s just one more worry to deal with. Charlie’s moved into a grand home in the Bay Area with his new wife, Vicky, and Rebecca’s convinced that her new stepmother is physically abusing her father—but Rebecca and Charlie have grown apart, and he rejects her offers of help. Years after marrying Vicky, Charlie dies of a cerebral hemorrhage, and Rebecca strongly suspects that his wife is implicated. Feeling guilty that she didn’t better protect her father, she returns to the Bay Area to investigate, vowing to find out what really happened. After finding herself frustrated at every turn in the Bay Area, Rebecca flees to Clear Lake, the scene of some of her happiest childhood memories. She collapses there, unable to go further, and finally confronts the emotional chaos that has been building within her. There at Clear Lake, she reaches a place of peace and resolution within herself—and it gives her the strength to both end her failed marriage and make the final push to discover the startling truth about her father.

About The Author

Nan Fink Gefen is the author of Stranger in the Midst and Discovering Jewish Meditation. Her fiction and nonfiction articles have appeared in numerous publications. After fifteen years as a psychotherapist and teacher, she became the co-founder and publisher of Tikkun magazine. In 1996 she began teaching Jewish meditation, and she has trained hundreds of students in the Bay Area and nationally. In 2007 she founded Persimmon Tree: An Online Magazine of the Arts by Women over Sixty, where she remains as publisher. Nan lives in Berkeley, CA, with her husband, Jonathan Omer-Man; their blended family includes seven children and nine grandkids.

Product Details

  • Publisher: She Writes Press (May 1, 2013)
  • Length: 256 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781938314414

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Raves and Reviews

Clear Lake is the story of a woman in midlife as she wrestles with long-term grief, guilt, betrayal, and confusion on the way to finding peace within herself. Highly readable and inspiring.”
—Cornelia Nixon, author of Angels Go Naked and Jarrettsville

“Nan Gefen has a deft hand at creating emotionally resonant characters who linger in the mind, as dear friends do, long after the mystery tucked into this novel is solved.”
—Joan Steinau Lester, author of Black, White, Other and Mama’s Child

“Written with insight and compassion, Clear Lake introduces us to a likable heroine struggling with confl icting obligations and guilt. We follow her story willingly because we, too, have had the experience of failing those we love and making the wrong choices at critical junctures. The prose is lucid and clear, like the lake of the title.”
—Brenda Webster, author of Vienna Triangle and president of PEN West American Center

“Rebecca’s dilemmas are clearly and gracefully rendered. The investigation into her father’s death raises troubling questions, and it takes the reader through rocky territory, but the trip is worth it as we like Rebecca immensely and are glad to accompany her to her bittersweet emotional destination.”
—Sandy Boucher, author of Turning the Wheel and Discovering Kwan Yin

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