Combining the unabashedly heart-warming sentiment of Robert James Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County or Nicholas Sparks’s Message in a Bottle, Goldstein’s ALL THAT MATTERS is an inspirational story that leads readers to the core of what matters in life—family, hope, and savoring each moment.

Jennifer Stempler had nothing left to lose. The love of her life asked her to move out, her mother died in a senseless car accident five years ago, and her famous Hollywood producer father started a brand-new family—with no room in it for her. So, 23-year-old Jennifer decided to pursue peaceful (permanent) oblivion on the beach near her home in Venice, California, drifting on a lethal combination of Xanax and tequila. But even her suicide attempt proves to be a failure.

Gabby Zuckerman refuses to let Jennifer, her granddaughter, self-destruct. In her grandmother's care, Jennifer learns to trust and hope again. They spend time together at Central Park and take a seminal journey to Maine. Jennifer exposes her paralyzing grief at the loss of her mother and learns painful history of her Nana’s past during the Nazi occupation of Poland. By revealing her own tragic and heroic experience, Gabby bestows Jennifer with an understanding of her own life’s value. When Gabby reveals her own secret—one that proves to be Jennifer's toughest challenge yet—Jennifer struggles to find if the gift will sustain her.

ALL THAT MATTERS is an enchanting first novel about the simple miracle of life and the true gift of unconditional love.

Amazon.com Review
Destined to be a sure-fire weeper, All that Matters by Jan Goldstein is, nonetheless, a good story about a lost young woman and her aged grandmother, both of whom have scores to settle with life, and a great deal to offer each other.

Jennifer Stempler has taken herself to Venice Beach to get lost in the crowd, ingest enough Xanax and tequila to do herself in, and simply lie down and die. Instead, the metal-combed beach sweeper stops just short of her inert form and her plan is foiled. Jennifer has, in her opinion, plenty of reasons to exit the planet. Her mother was killed while walking when she would have been driving if Jennifer hadn't taken the car--at her mother's insistence; her father, having left her and her mother years before, is now remarried to Ms. Beverly Hills Aerobics and the proud father of a baby girl; her long-time lover, her this-is-forever guy, ups and leaves. Everybody seems to be leaving, so why not her, reasons Jennifer.

Enter the quintessential Jewish grandmother, Gittel "Gabby" Zuckerman, Holocaust survivor and fearless old lady. She convinces Jennifer's pompous father and her Doctor to let Jennifer go to New York with her, instead of being locked up someplace, drugged senseless and asked to talk herself to pieces. One of the best parts of the book is the sendup Goldstein does of shrinks and their various party lines.

At the beginning of the book, Jennifer carries a camcorder everywhere: "It wasn't just about focus, Jennifer told herself. Recording events meant time could be stopped, played back, even erased." This metaphor is, unfortunately, never followed up, and it's a good one for what happens to Jennifer. The relationship between the two women, one with a life ahead of her, if she will only claim it, and the other with a life she will soon leave, flourishes as they learn from each other that what really matters is offering the gift of love. --Valerie Ryan