Press Release: Hope Will Find You by Naomi Levy
On Sale: September 21, 2010
Contact: Caroline Sill
212-782-8943
HOPE WILL FIND YOU
My Search for the Wisdom to Stop Waiting and Start Living
By Naomi Levy
“An honest account of a family struggle as well as a tribute to a very strong mother-daughter bond, this will appeal to those who gravitate toward self-help books based on Jewish wisdom.”
—Booklist
“Hope Will Find You is a revelation. Naomi Levy’s story broke my heart, but her insight, wisdom and humor put it back together. This is a book to share with all your friends, a book you will return to again and again. I don’t know anyone who won’t be transformed by it.”
—Julianna Margulies, actress
“Naomi Levy gained much wisdom from the tribulations of her own family. We can gain that wisdom by reading her moving book about it.”
—Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Throughout her years as a rabbi, Naomi Levy has counseled many people who were waiting for their life to begin. These people were all different, but the yearning was the same. Life would begin when certain pieces fell into place: when I lose weight, when I fall in love, when I get a job, when I get married, when I have a baby, when I buy a home, when I get divorced, when I quit my job . . . People would come to Rabbi Levy with their questions and concerns, and she would listen and offer guidance and hope.
But one day, without warning, Levy was faced with her own personal crisis. In July 2001, her doctors informed her that her five-year-old daughter, Noa, had Ataxia Telangiectasia (A-T); a rare disease that causes degeneration in the part of the brain that controls motor movements and speech. In HOPE WILL FIND YOU: My Search for the Wisdom to Stop Waiting and Start Living (Doubleday Religion; On Sale September 21, 2010; Hardcover; $23.00), Naomi Levy shares her story of embracing her imperfect situation, and the ways in which she learned to find hope.
Levy looks at the painful struggle millions of people have in feeling that they are waiting for life to begin, believing that their existence isn’t powerful enough to be a “real” life. Who isn’t longing for something? Who isn’t frightened? She faces these questions, grappling with her daughter’s illness, and despite her spiritual position as a rabbi, finds herself feeling angry and abandoned by God.
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Levy seeks advice and answers from those who are close to her, but her biggest influence becomes her daughter, Noa, who helps her to see the daily miracles and teaches her an invaluable lesson: Our greatest disability is fear, our greatest strength is courage. Despite her young age, Noa inspires Levy to find the path out of waiting, telling her, “If you don’t have good luck, if you’re missing something, you will find it, so don’t lose hope in yourself. Hope will always find you.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
NAOMI LEVY is the author of the national bestseller To Begin Again and Talking to God. She is the founder and leader of NASHUVA, the Jewish spiritual outreach movement, and was in the first class of women to enter the Conservative rabbinical seminary. She was named one of the 50 top rabbis in America by Newsweek magazine, listed as one of the 50 most dynamic Jewish leaders in the nation by the Forward, and was recently listed by the Forward as one of the 50 most influential female rabbis in the nation. She lives in Venice, California, with her husband, Rob and their children, Adin and Noa.
HOPE WILL FIND YOU
My Search for the Wisdom to Stop Waiting and Start Living
By Naomi Levy
Published by Doubleday Religion, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-385-53170-2; 256 pages; $23.00
On Sale: September 21, 2010
For more information about HOPE WILL FIND YOU or to schedule an interview with Naomi Levy please contact Caroline Sill at 212-782-8943 or csill@randomhouse.com.
