Love and remembrance

in 1999, shoshannah levy-goldstein, a young naturopathic physician, finds a box that belonged to her grandfather, dr. eliahu levy, a distinguished psychiatrist who escaped from germany shortly before the second world war. the box contains the file of his therapeutic sessions with one patient, sophie jacobs. contrary to professional ethics, dr. levy failed to destroy this file when he closed his practice, as he believed it would be of scientific value in the future because of its documentation and analysis of the paranormal. after reviewing the file, shoshannah reaches the same conclusion. she transcribes the sessions into book form, divided into "tapes" and "notes." the tapes explore the paranormal phenomena discussed by the patient (sophie) and the notes reveal the doctor's evaluation of their validity. shoshannah's editorial footnotes, which appear throughout, also provide insight into levy family dynamics, as well as explanatory information. the title is derived from sophie's remembrance of the love she felt for harry, now deceased, who has returned as a spirit, to refresh her memory and to ease his own pain, much of which is associated with combat duty in the second world war. listening to sophie describe the paranormal phenomena she has experienced, dr. levy finds his own memories of the war revived. the book concludes with an episode in which the lives of the major characters are woven together for the resolution of past traumatic events.