The Mystics of Mile End

October 26, 2015
With a refreshing new voice that has a dash of Anne Tyler and a sprinkling of Sholem Aleichem, Samuel explores the search for enlightenment in her standout debut. She follows one family's obsession with Jewish modern-day mysticism, depicting a slice of life in a devout community and showing how people absorb tragedy and then rebel from or cleave to religion to help them cope with the day-to-day. David Meyer, a professor of Jewish mysticism, renounced religion; a few days later, his wife, an observant Jewish woman, died in a car accident. Their children, Lev and Samara, struggle to grapple with these coincidental events. Young Lev desperately tries to bring joy into his father's life, all the while hoping this or that woman will put the sparkle back into his emotionally absent father. Samara, too, gets caught up in Kabbalah and the biblical Tree of Life. Readers are then shown life through David's eyes as the academic subject he taught for years suddenly becomes a life obsession, with dire consequences. With the help of the everpresent anchors in the Meyers' livesânext door neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Glassman, Holocaust survivors with their own private agonies; and Alex Caufin, Lev's best friend, enamored of Samaraâthe author shows with heart and insight that what we seek is often right in front of us.

August 1, 2015
A family is pulled to Jewish mysticism-and away from each other-in this expansive saga about faith, love, and loss. Samuel's debut is divided into four sections. The first three, with different narrators, recount distinct eras in the Meyers' history. We meet Lev at age 11, a few years after the sudden death of his mother, a religious Jewish woman. Lev is acutely attuned to the emotions of others, especially of his sister and father. He begins exploring religion, building a friendship with his delusional, religious neighbor. The second section picks up the thread years later, gathering momentum through the eyes of his father, David. A religious studies professor, David has shunned religion as anything but an objective, academic study for years. After suffering a health scare, however, he's drawn to the powerful ideas of cabala. Samara's section starts after another family loss. She's a college student living away from home. Though emotionally estranged from her father, she finds the same coping mechanism he had, embarking on a cabalistic mystical pursuit. The fragmented style is unified in the final section through an omniscient narrator, providing a full sense of the Meyerses and their neighborhood. The minor characters, ever present in the background, shine as their stories conclude powerfully. Often, mysteries that loom large for one narrator are answered logically by another. This level of coincidence could be deemed implausible by some readers, yet it fits in with the overarching theme of faith. A tale about the stories we let ourselves believe.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from July 1, 2015

Shortly after David Meyer rejects Orthodox Judaism, his wife, Miriam, dies in an automobile accident, leaving David and his young children, Lev and Samara, searching for meaning in life. Some of their Montreal neighbors encourage a return to religious belief, while other friends who are more grounded in science and academia steer them toward rationality. As Samuel exquisitely portrays this family's struggles over the course of years to find reasons for living, she entwines their searches with the kabbalistic mysticism about the Trees of Knowledge and Life that have endlessly obsessed all three of the family members, particularly Samara. VERDICT Every character in this outstanding first novel is searching for a reason to exist--not just the Meyer family, but also their neighbors and close friends. The need for human relationships and mysticism's relationship to life impel them forward into very questionable actions that might have disastrous consequences. This heart-stopping narrative will keep readers glued until the very end.--Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
In a diverse Montreal neighborhood, the Meyer familyson Lev, daughter Samara, and father Davidmourn the loss of their mother and wife. Since David has given up practicing his religion, the children are left to explore Judaism on their own. The chapters span a decade and explore each character's perspective. Lev, as a young child, watches his sister secretly study for her bat mitzvah. David, as a professor of Jewish mysticism, regains his interest in kabbalah, following a heart attack. Then Samara pushes her body and mind to the extreme after a tragedy. Other eccentrics pepper the community: Mr. Katz creates models of the Tree of Knowledge in his front yard; a young scientist, Alex, explores the universe with his telescope. Where will one find meaning in life? Will it be in science? In religion? In devout practice or in abstract theories? There are plenty of rich ideas here ripe for exploration, but there is less to grasp onto in the plot itself; the important moments seem to have happened in the spaces between the chapters, leaving the whole feeling a bit abstract. Still, the book provides a solid foundation for profitable discussions and would make a good book-club choice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)