Absence of Pain

Victor deftly blends humor, romance and tragedy in this memorable novel about the importance of finding love and security in a perilous, unstable world. Television news correspondent Maggie Sommers watches with horror when her soundman is gruesomely killed by a grenade in Lebanon in 1982. Distraught, she flees home to New York to ponder her miserable past and uncertain future. Though Maggie grew up in enviable affluence, her father's infidelities drove her mother to attempt suicide. Maggie's own farcical marriage to Eric Ornstein began inauspiciously (on their honeymoon, he wanted her to see Dachau) and ended equally badly. Despite these traumas, she became an accomplished reporter, but now, plagued by relentless pessimism and self-doubt, Maggie must decide whether to commit herself to her lover, a dashing Israeli general, or face life without him. With her quirks, courage and vulnerability, Maggie Sommers is an endearing heroine. (September)