In Montreal's Mile End neighborhood, Hasidic communities live alongside progressive hipsters. Falling somewhere in between is the Meyer family--David Meyer, a staunchly secular professor of religion, struggles to connect with his two children after the death of their devoutly religious mother. But at the heart of the family's grief is a complex crisis of faith. The Mystics of Mile End--journalist Sigal Samuel's debut novel--chronicles the spiritual journeys of its characters as they seek wisdom from their neighbors: a Holocaust survivor, a young science nerd and an oddball building a "Tree of Life" out of trash in his backyard.
The Tree of Life proves to have the most enduring influence on the family. It sparks the children's interest in Kabbalah, which their religion teacher warns them is so dangerous you must be "forty years old and married" in order to study it. He tells them, "Suddenly everything you see looks like a sign from above," and that many sages "lost their heads chasing after such signs." But a thirst for knowledge runs in the family and, one by one, they explore the practice.
Samuel writes about Jewish culture for the Jewish Daily Forward and researched her Indian Jewish family's involvement with secret kabbalistic societies, so she deftly handles the intricacies of religion. Mystics reads almost like an allegory, with each character representing a distinct approach to finding meaning. And yet, what the characters find in their searches often blur the lines of their approaches, emerging as something new entirely. --Annie Atherton