Leah, formerly Lola,
has had a difficult life. She’s only thirty-four, but her fiance
died tragically, and she has found no one else to give her the secure
home life and children she craves. In her search for meaning, she
joins an Orthodox Jewish community in Boro Park, Brooklyn. Her
mother, an atheist, finds the idea ridicules. Leah has a business
degree, a good job, and good prospects, but Leah can’t let her
mother run her life.
Yaakov Lehman, a
widowed Talmudic scholar, is trying to raise his children, but they
and he are not coping well. Leah volunteers to help the family and
soon finds herself enjoying the children. Predictably, she and Yaakov
find they have feelings for each other, but it’s not as simple as
it seems.
This is a
sensitively told story of people looking for meaning amid the
problems of daily life: family dysfunction, economic reverses,
bigotry, and hypocrisy. The setting in an Orthodox Jewish community
will not be familiar to many people, but the problems facing the
people are the same in many other places.
The characters are
engaging. I enjoyed Leah, but she almost seemed to be too good to be
true when she took on the problems of Yaakov’s family. The children
are an excellent addition to the story. Seeing the reactions of
children tells a lot about what is happening under the surface of
relationships.
Although the plot is
relatively predictable, the book is well worth reading for the
character development.
I received this book
from St. Martin’s Press for this review.
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