Start the Journey… Explore our Award-Winning Book

Beyond This Realm

Quest for Eternal Sunshine is a free and growing resource for wisdom, healing and self-discovery inspired by my father, Mendek Rubin—a Holocaust survivor who successfully journeyed from darkness to light and wanted to help others find peace, joy and love.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter!

"This heartfelt account of a remarkable life will interest anyone who has suffered trauma or who is overcoming difficulties, as well as those interested in Holocaust survivor biographies."
--Library Journal

"[Rubin's] prose is as lucid as it is candidly confessional, and his refusal to simply succumb to self-pity is inspiring. . . . A heartbreaking story of survival and emotional resilience."
―Kirkus Reviews

"Quest for Eternal Sunshine is an inspiring memoir about the human will to survive. . . . A story that truly inspires without trying hard to do so, and this is what makes the book a remarkable read."
--Readers' Favorite five-star review

"Quest for Eternal Sunshine . . . is an inherently fascinating, impressively informative, and ultimately inspiring read."
--Midwest Book Review

"Mendek's story is one of the grand, improbable, tragic, heroic, and triumphant memoir stories of our times--more unlikely than fiction. It demands to be shared."
--Gordon Wheeler, president of Esalen Institute, clinical psychologist, author, and teacher

"A moving and inspiring story of courageous change from enormous suffering to a wisdom that transforms heart and mind! We can all learn from this."
--Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart

"This luminous book is a gift to the world."
--Nikiko Masumoto, co-author of Changing Season: A Father, A Daughter, A Family Farm

"Mendek's unique and beautifully told story is one of the most inspiring healing journeys I've ever read. I've savored this gem of a book many times, and each time, I am amazed and filled with awe. If you want to be deeply inspired, buy this book today."
--Laura Davis, author of The Courage to Heal and I Thought We'd Never Speak Again

"Mendek is good medicine for these times. We can be nourished by witnessing his progression from darkness to light as a path of healing and a vehicle of awakening. This book is an affirmation of the entirety of what it means to be human, and it communicates the possibilities inherent in living our lives openheartedly. Learning from Mendek was not just an intellectual experience--my heart was truly touched, and I will never be the same."
--Patricia Wolff, Buddhist teacher, chiropractic physician, homeopath, and psychotherapist

"Mendek's story is moving and realistic. His journey is remarkable precisely because it is so honest and human. In a time when millions of people around the globe are displaced, this narrative gives us hope for the future. It is a treasured contribution to the understanding of human resilience and our potential for change."
--Rabbi Leah Novick, author of On the Wings of Shekhinah: Re-Discovering Judaism's Divine Feminine

"Quest for Eternal Sunshine is the stirring story of a Holocaust survivor who managed to transform his life through an authentic search for spiritual enlightenment and the discovery of the power of love. The book provides a brand-new perspective on how the Holocaust affected not only those who were personally touched by it but also the members of succeeding generations."
--Robert Greenfield, journalist and author of National Jewish Book Award winner Temple

"This is a must-read narrative that stands out among the vast literature of the Holocaust for its honesty and passionate embrace of life, love, joy, and purpose in the wake of unimaginable loss. Rubin's hard-earned, lifelong quest for self-awareness and inner growth in the wake of extreme loss is brutally honest, truly inspiring, and eventually allowed him to engage fully in a beautiful world once again. We can all learn so much from this wise and wonderful man."
--Carol Lynn McKibben, author of Racial Beachhead: Diversity and Democracy in a Military Town

"Shining throughout Mendek Rubin's remarkable story--one unlike any other--is a daughter's love and devotion to her father. These pages don't only make evident Myra Goodman's conviction in the value of bringing Rubin's transformative journey to light, but also her belief in the imperative to remember and to document history. Not only is this the story of one man and one family's life, it is a deeply moving testament, a love story, from a daughter to her dad."
--Patrice Vecchione, author of My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry and Speaking Your Truth

"In one of his poems, Mendek Rubin asks, 'What if I asked a growing tree to show me the way?' Quest for Eternal Sunshine is a growing tree--it shows us the way past memory and conditioning to the present moment, that 'magical world' which, Mendek assures us, is waiting for us all."
--Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts, author of White Fire: Poems

"I wish I'd known Mendek Rubin, but reading this book is the next best thing. It's the story of his lifelong mission to find joy, meaning, and love after enduring the hell of Nazi concentration camps. He was able to literally change the way his mind worked. I found myself underlining and writing stars in the margins, so I could go back and savor his wisdom and his humor. His story is humbling, riveting, and inspiring. I'm certain it will take its place as a gemstone of Holocaust literature."
--Sara Davidson, New York Times bestselling author of Loose Change and Joan: Forty years of Life, Love, and Friendship with Joan Didion

"This father and daughter quest to repair the traumatized mind enhances our knowledge. We are grateful that Mendek's story did not die with him."
--San Diego Jewish World

“[Quest for Eternal Sunshine] reflects a forty-year inter­nal jour­ney that is often as fraught and coura­geous as the Israelites’ jour­ney through the desert towards free­dom. By the end of Rubin’s jour­ney, he, too, is whole and tru­ly lib­er­at­ed. . . . There is much that can be learned from Mendek Rubin and his life. Though his generation is passing, his wisdom and unabashed belief in the good­ness of mankind should give us all hope for years to come.”
-- Jewish Book Council

Sign up for weekly messages of inspiration and insight!