Clear Lake

Overcome with guilt over her estranged father's death, psychotherapist Rebecca Lev leaves her Chicago practice for the Bay Area to investigate, convinced his abusive wife killed him—but before she can find out what happened to her father, she has to deal with her own emotional turmoil.

“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

Nan Fink Gefen is the author of Stranger in the Midst: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery (Basic Books, 1997) and Discovering Jewish Meditation (Jewish Lights, 2nd edition 2011.) 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.