An Imperfect Certainty

From World War II to Vietnam to Iraq, from New World Order to antiwar “mobes” to “Mission Accomplished,” An Imperfect Certainty tells the dramatic, sometimes heartbreaking, ultimately uplifting story of three generations of Americans as they contend with the wars and social upheavals that define their times—and help illuminate our own.

At the end of May 1944, Stephen Wroth—Bronx high school class president, athlete, and marginally observant Jew—enlists in the army. By the time his war is over, he will somehow survive from the South of France to Bavaria; see his best friend killed in circumstances that suffuse him with guilt; commit murder; take part in the liberation of Dachau, where he will meet his future wife; and forge the worldview that will define him—and haunt him and his family—for the rest of their lives.

By the1960s, Stephen is living a seemingly comfortable life with his wife, Annalise, and their three nearly-grown children, Sandra, Jacob, and Ben, all of whom have been swept up in the turbulence of the antiwar and civil rights movements. Stephen and Annalise have arrived at this stage of their lives holding very different outlooks—crucially, including opposing positions on the Vietnam war. The result proves calamitous for them and their children as, by the mid-1970s, one son is lost, another is in exile, and Stephen and Annalise’s marriage has imploded.

The dawn of the new millennium finds the Wroth family far-flung—but still clutching at a few remaining, fragile ties. Stephen and Annalise’s grandson, Michael, has been grievously wounded in Iraq. At the same time, Annalise, who long ago resettled in Israel, is preparing for a commemoration of the liberation of Dachau, when another grandson is injured in a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem. These events bring together the three generations, each one the distillation of a family of individuals who have, in their own ways, molded their futures.

From the acclaimed author of Keeping Gideon and Ingersoll, the story told in An Imperfect Certainty poses the essential question for us all: How do we shape the future, and who will own it?