MIRIAM'S WELL

Faith and science clash in a miraculous recovery from bone cancer. Glib Adam, Jewish and full of easy confidence, is paired for a poetry assignment with serious-minded Miriam, member of a Christian sect that believes in faith healing. When Miriam is afflicted with a painful tumor, she's hospitalized against her will. The court allows medical treatment to begin while Adam's lawyer-father tries to prove the violation of Miriam's First Amendment rights, but—thanks to therapy or prayer—Miriam is healed before the case can be argued. Meanwhile, she and Adam have fallen in love, but neither can, or wishes to, convert the other. In Miriam's first-person narration (alternating with Adam's), Ruby credibly conveys the simple power of the girl's beliefs. She establishes both personalities so well that their polarized positions have an intimately human scale: the two characters are not idealogues, but likable, articulate teenagers groping toward tolerance and understanding even as life-and-death issues transform them. Though the ``miracle'' ending may chafe, it's achieved with such precision that it smooths the way to a sadly appropriate close. An unusual book that roots an intense debate in terms that'll have readers cheering for both sides. (Fiction. 12+)