A Guide for the Perplexed: Jonathan Levi - Softcover

A first novel of monumental ambition and striving imagination * New York Times * Levi's audacious debut rings changes on a variety of intellectual themes while chronicling the friendship of two women, both visitors in Spain, who discover their common bonds * Publisher's Weekly * Writes with a Saul Bellow-like braininess and brashness while also bearing the mark of such fabulists as Gunter Grass and Gabriel Garcia Marquez... vigorous, vivid, and grounded in the pleasures of the senses * Newsday *

A Guide for the Perplexed combines the romantic erudition of Umberto Eco and A.S. Byatt with the ingenious storytelling of Scheherazade and A Thousand and One Nights; a tour de force that should not be missed. A late-night strike closes down an airport leaving two women stranded on their respective journeys in the bewitched Spanish town of Mariposa. Holland, an English filmmaker, has come to interview Sandor, the famous but reclusive violinist. Hanni, a Miami widow, is on a quest to recover a lost letter that confirms her link to her ancestor Esau, who was allegedly the true discoverer of America. Each woman has had her trip arranged by Ben, a cosmological travel agent and each has a copy of his tourist guide, entitled Guide for the Perplexed. As the women share cabs, surreal adventures and their fantastic personal histories, Levi's mesmerizing tale spirals back in time, embracing stories about Jews, the Inquisition and Columbus's first voyage. Fairy tale-like narratives within the main narrative dramatize issues of religion, compromise and survival, ultimately evolving into a dazzling improvisation on the theme of journeys and exile.