Fiction. Jewish Studies. Winegarden recounts episodes in the life of Jacob Winegarden, an agnostic Jewish professor of theoretical physics whose speciality is 'thought experimentation.' A burly, vague, distracted man, a fan of popular films such as Toy Story and Fantastic Voyage, Jacob is still forlornly infatuated with his enigmatic wife, Miriam. She brings him back to reality: he is in a world of his own, she says, but there are things that need doing in this one. Moving backwards and forwards in time, the book touches on different parts of Winegarden's life and thoughts, and tells a larger personal story of grief and survival, the ambivalence and persistence of love, and the meaning of being Jewish.