SANDS AND SCIENCE shift under the weight of history in Rachel Robbins’s debut novel, The Sound of a Thousand Stars (Alcove Press). Set during World War II, the story primarily follows Alice Katz, a trailblazing Jewish physicist, who joins her mentor, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, on a top-secret government project in a clandestine New Mexico town the scientists dub “Lost Almost.” As their work inches toward an invention set to change the world, Alice forms a deep connection with Caleb Blum, an Orthodox Jew specializing in explosives. The Chicago-based author’s poignant prose captures the allure of this forbidden love—and New Mexico monsoons—while thoughtfully exploring the boundary between progress and peril.
What We're Reading: The Sound of a Thousand Stars
Rachel Robbins’s debut novel, "The Sound of a Thousand Stars," follows a Jewish physicist's scientific pursuits and a forbidden love that unfolds in a secret New Mexico town during World War II.