The Book of Separation: A Memoir

Novelist Mirvis (Visible City) intimately chronicles her divorce and her separation from modern Orthodox Judaism in this bold memoir. After a lifetime devoted to religion and her family, she decided to navigate the secular world for the first time. She became a single parent, sharing custody of her three children with her ex-husband Aaron, whom she met as an undergrad at Columbia University. Throughout, she reflects on both the psychological tension and joy of choosing a new lifestyle, one in which she drives on Shabbat and celebrates new holidays such as Halloween. Her children, too, go through their own transformative relationship to religion: her oldest son, Noam, remained Orthodox, while the middle child, Josh, like her, chose to explore a freedom outside of Orthodox Judaism. He eats nonkosher pizza for the first time and has late-night discussions about whether he believes in God. Mirvis’s account focuses less on the oppressiveness she felt within the religion and more on the emotional impact of separating and starting over. Hers is a story of grief and rebirth. She is compassionate and judicious in her portrayal of Orthodox Judaism, even as she describes its repressive attitudes toward women; she also discusses the diverse Jewish lifestyles, from Hasidic to secular. Her personal journey makes for an introspective and fascinating story. (Sept.)