About the novel
When everything shatters, something sacred remains.
The Strength of Shattered Glass follows one woman's profound and deeply personal journey as she navigates the ancient rites, traditions, and spiritual depths of conversion to Judaism. Set against the backdrop of a world that rarely pauses to ask the hardest questions — Who am I? What do I believe? Where do I belong? — this novel is a meditation on identity, belonging, and the quiet courage it takes to rebuild a life around faith. Readers of the prequel, Weddings By The Glass, will remember how Hillie Gordon found and married the love of her life, Jacob "Jay" Jaworski. It is the losses that follow that love which set this story in motion — and it is the remarkable Bleue Céleste who helps Hillie find her way through grief and toward becoming.
"In the breaking, she found what had always been whole."
At the heart of the story
Themes and Characters that endure
Spiritual Transformation
A woman's interior journey through doubt, discovery, and devotion.
Jewish Tradition & Identity
The novel explores how one woman must choose for herself the spiritual path she needs to follow in order to be happy. Family expectations are always present, but it is through resilience, guidance, and growth that true identity emerges.
The Courage to Belong
What it means to choose a faith — and to be chosen by it, in spite of adversity, loss, and trauma.
Bleue Céleste
A young woman of extraordinary wisdom who walks alongside Hillie — guiding her through grief and toward the life waiting on the other side.
Dedication
In memory of Flory and Felix Van Beek
Holocaust survivors & an enduring inspiration
It was my great honor to know Flory and Felix very well as the congregational Rabbi at Temple Isaiah in Newport Beach, California. Flory had written an autobiography in which she documented her experience aboard a passenger ship that was tragically sunk by a German U-boat. The group aboard the ship had been fleeing the Nazis during the early stages of World War Two. Miraculously, both she and Felix — whom she first met on the ship — survived, while many aboard could not be rescued. This event would shape the rest of their lives.
Flory wrote in her memoir that she had been injured by a piece of broken glass that was removed from her shoulder. She decided to keep the shard of glass not only as a reminder of the tragedy, but also of her strength and resiliency through this terrible period in history. The horror that Flory and Felix — and so many others — went through later in hiding from the Nazis was nightmarish, but they survived and dedicated their lives to helping others.
I think the idea of Flory's determination and strength in the face of such great human tragedy influenced me to see the shattered glass that had injured Flory as a metaphor for the courage and resolve that can inspire one to face life's toughest challenges. Yes, shattered glass is broken, but the pieces do remain as a reminder of what once was whole. Also, I think it symbolizes that glass, like human beings, may break, but can still survive.
That is true strength.
— Rabbi Marc
About the author
Rabbi Marc
Rabbi Marc is the author of Weddings By The Glass, a prequel to this novel. He has also written the children's book Oni and The Kingdom of Onion. A rabbi, educator, and storyteller, Marc brings decades of spiritual wisdom and a deep love of Jewish tradition to his fiction.
His students have long been the first readers of his work — a community of seekers who recognize in his writing the questions they carry themselves. The Strength of Shattered Glass is his most personal and expansive novel to date.
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