The World of Mark Leonard Big-hearted, eight-year-old Mark Leonard lives on the brink of two worlds: one steeped in the hardship of post–World War II America, where his father is consumed by financial woes; the other where he’s buoyed by his exceptionally vivid imagination. In his imagination, Mark is a heroic soldier, a surgeon, and a daredevil striving to live up to the ideals of the 1950s. When his family uproots from Queens, New York, to start afresh in Massachusetts, Mark finds refuge from loneliness in an unlikely friendship with an eccentric, wealthy, elderly neighbor who has shut out the world following a debilitating accident. Their mutual gift for conjuring up imaginary worlds to cope with reality—which for Mark includes the confusing teachings of his Jewish faith—leads them to push the boundaries between these two realms, exploring the fine line between love, imagination, and the existence of God.