\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d Graubart said. \u201cThe issues also play out with characters that become real people that readers can connect to, so hopefully they start being sympathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s who is now a journalist in America travels to Israel to investigate the death.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a depressing book, because the mystery pushes you along, but there are a series of issues within the envelope of the mystery,\u201d Graubart said. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graubart has published nine books \u2014 six of them novels. Four of those six are mysteries.<\/p>\n
![\"La](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ljl-l-phil-rabbi-author.jpg\")
La Jolla resident Phil Graubart has written nine books, including six novels. (Provided by Phil Graubart)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been intrigued by certain questions for a long time, and I work out those questions by creating characters where these issues can play out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a joy in reading a good novel. \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
While acknowledging that \u201cHere There Is No Why\u201d \u201cmight not be for everyone,\u201d Graubart said \u201cIsrael 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the novel \u201cbrings 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graubart will participate in an event called \u201cThe Rabbi, the Reverend and Jerusalem: Can Fiction and Friendship Heal What Politics Can\u2019t?\u201d 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 \u201cA Rooftop in Jerusalem,\u201d discussing their books, the process in writing them and the messages they hope to share.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Jerusalem I write about is almost exclusively Jewish Jerusalem, where Jews congregate,\u201d Graubart said. \u201cHis 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\u2019s been amazing and fascinating to work with someone from a different faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graubart said the goal of the Aug. 2 talk is to \u201chave an interfaith dialogue and, using the tools of fiction, storytelling and characters, get these issues out there.\u201d \u2666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topics such as the Holocaust, death and the ongoing conflicts involving Israel can be heavy for some readers.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":111435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3548,7354,19284,27684,3549,3550,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-111434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la-jolla","12":"tag-la-jolla-light","13":"tag-la-jolla-light-news","14":"tag-la-jolla-shores","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-county","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114955966466938187","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}