"The Genius of the World, takes us on a journey of the body and the spirit. The novel moves from Princeton, New Jersey to the coast of California, from a family's Jewish history into a rebellious boy's mysterious conversion to Buddhism. This is a story of many voices - Ira, troubled and headstrong, dying of cancer; Abbey, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and family patriarch; Phoebe, middle child, seeking a path that will reconcile her love for these two men; and Eileen, a woman terrified by her father's fury and her children's desires. These voices together tell a tale of intergenerational obligation, of the search for identity, of spiritual yearning, and of the urge to both deeply honor the inner self and yet remain connected to the family."--BOOK JACKET.