La Jolla rabbi’s new book interweaves mystery with ‘weighty issues’

Topics such as the Holocaust, death and the ongoing conflicts involving Israel can be heavy for some readers. That’s why a La Jolla rabbi has interwoven them into several of his mystery novels in the past few years, including the latest one that is out now.

Phil Graubart’s “Here There Is No Why” is inspired by true events — specifically the 1987 death of Holocaust survivor Primo Levi, whose body was found under a balcony in Italy.

The book was published late last year and is available at amazon.com.

“It’s a fairly lighthearted mystery that is easy to read, but my purpose in writing it is there a series of weighty issues we touch on in the course of the narrative so people can think about them,” Graubart said. “The issues also play out with characters that become real people that readers can connect to, so hopefully they start being sympathetic.”

In the story, celebrity Israeli author and Holocaust survivor Chaim Lerner is found dead under a balcony in Israel under mysterious circumstances and with police unable to determine whether it was suicide, homicide or an accident. A former student of Lerner’s who is now a journalist in America travels to Israel to investigate the death.

“It’s not a depressing book, because the mystery pushes you along, but there are a series of issues within the envelope of the mystery,” Graubart said. “It touches on the Holocaust and the state of Israel, terrorism and the traumatizing effects of terrorism, suicide and the hows and whys of that, and parenting, because the main character brings his teenage daughter with him and that relationship is unfolding as she helps solve the case.”

Graubart has published nine books — six of them novels. Four of those six are mysteries.

“I’ve been intrigued by certain questions for a long time, and I work out those questions by creating characters where these issues can play out,” he said.

“There is a joy in reading a good novel. … But these issues are important to think about these days, so the book creates context. After you read a book about things like this, you get a little wiser, more humble and more engaged.”

While acknowledging that “Here There Is No Why” “might not be for everyone,” Graubart said “Israel is in the news a lot and these conversations are not rare, so notwithstanding the current war, Israel is a source of intrigue. So they can have thoughtful reflection in reading this book.”

He added that the novel “brings you to a culture you might not be involved in, and there is value in that. If readers dare to go out of their comfort zone, they will find a mystery that comes from the Jewish world, but not just for the Jewish world.”

Graubart will participate in an event called “The Rabbi, the Reverend and Jerusalem: Can Fiction and Friendship Heal What Politics Can’t?” at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Mira Mesa. The event will feature Graubart and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, author of “A Rooftop in Jerusalem,” discussing their books, the process in writing them and the messages they hope to share.

The authors separately wrote books about Jerusalem, without sharing drafts with each other, but soon found that both books had similar themes, though from different perspectives.

“The Jerusalem I write about is almost exclusively Jewish Jerusalem, where Jews congregate,” Graubart said. “His is almost exclusively Christian Jerusalem, which I knew nothing about. I have probably been 25 times and never been to the places he mentions. So in our coming together, we learned a lot. It’s been amazing and fascinating to work with someone from a different faith.”

Graubart said the goal of the Aug. 2 talk is to “have an interfaith dialogue and, using the tools of fiction, storytelling and characters, get these issues out there.”