Poetry. Jewish Studies. In DIVIDING BY ZERO Barry Marks, Birmingham, Alabama attorney and author of the 2010 Eric Hoffer Award Finalist Sounding brings us a riveting volume of poems, stories and narratives that weave a complex tale about a man, Raymond Shaw, who commits suicide and his daughter L. The unique structure, which Marks uses to tell both L. and Raymond's story, is inspired by the Talmud—the Jewish Rabbinic text that contains statements of religious law, case histories and interpretative notes on each page.