Benevolence

A timely, smart, amusing and deeply humane novel about altruism, forgiveness and the vicissitudes of marriage.

Dr. Ben Wasserman is an organ transplant psychiatrist stymied by a man who wishes to donate a kidney to a neighbour for no apparent reason beyond a wish to help. While doggedly searching for an ulterior motive, he secretly hopes the would-be donor is a bona fide altruist. At the same time, Ben's psychologist wife, Renata Moon, is treating a young phobic whose husband died in a train crash. When her client reveals that she is pregnant, Renata's own feelings of disappointment in her childless marriage are triggered anew. It doesn't help that Ben's widowed mother, Molly, wishes out loud that her eldest son had married a nice Jewish girl instead of a "barren shiksa" like Renata. As the strain on Renata and Ben's marriage grows more acute, Molly takes in a boarder, a man from her past with difficult secrets that threaten to complicate the family dynamics even more. There are disapproving questions, surprising connections — and magical, unexpected, life-changing answers — all around.