The Explanation for Everything

As she did in the New York Times bestselling novel A Friend of the Family, Lauren Grodstein has written another provocative morality tale, this time dissecting the permeable line between faith and doubt.

Pre-order author Grodstein's new can't-be-missed novel, We Must Not Think of Ourselves, coming November 28, 2023. A truly unforgettable story about the fight for life--and love--in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

College professor Andy Waite is picking up the pieces of a shattered life. Between his research in evolutionary biology and caring for his young daughters, his days are reassuringly safe, if a bit lonely. But when Melissa Potter--charismatic, unpredictable, and devout--asks him to advise her study of intelligent design, he agrees. Suddenly, the world that Andy has fought to rebuild is rocked to its foundations.

"A well-crafted story of wayward souls searching for forgiveness, healing and personal truth." --Family Circle

"Grodstein handles everything with a subtle wit, managing to skewer both the ultraconservative and the ultraliberal without making either seem absolutely wrong . . . Reminiscent of Carolyn Parkhurst's Dogs of Babel." --Booklist

"Finding or losing God proves to be an equally destabilizing tectonic shift, and this novel is full of them . . . Their cumulative force will leave you happily unsteady, and moved." --The Washington Post

"A master storyteller . . . Tackles the tough topics: healing after loss, the relevance and possibility of the divine in our lives, the gilded shackles of academic life, and life in Southern New Jersey--all while always being terrifically entertaining." --Ben Schrank, author of Love Is a Canoe

"Engrossing . . . You'll likely close the book with a new perspective on faith, justice, mercy, and the difficulty of holding a moral high ground." --Bust

"A novel of ideas and a deeply felt story of love, loss, hope, and the healing powers of forgiveness . . . A provocative, moving story, and a beautifully written one." --Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion


About the Author

LAUREN GRODSTEIN is the author of six books, including the Washington Post Book of the Year The Explanation for Everything and the New York Times bestselling A Friend of the Family. Her writing has appeared in Elle, the New York Times, Salon.com, and the Washington Post. Her fiction has been recognized by the New York Public Library and Columbia University. She is a professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden, where she teaches in the MFA program in creative writing.