Illuminated Soul
by Aryeh Lev Stollman
List Price: $14.00
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover/Paperback
ISBN: 157322975X
Publisher: Riverhead Books
One June, a few years after the Second World War, a priceless possession comes into the lives of an ordinary family in Windsor, Canada. It is a rare fifteenth-century illuminated manuscript called the Augsburg Miscellany, smuggled out of Europe at great risk—and at tragic cost. Filled with Hebrew teachings from the most ancient holy books, it offers the family a new experience of the world and its possibilities. And, for young Joseph, it illuminates the secret places of his own soul, with life-changing consequences.
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1. Discuss the importance of Eva's inventing the veil for Asa so that he can protect his eyes and see. What role does Eva play in helping each family member to see the world in new ways?
2. Discuss the transformative effect of Eva's stay on Joseph's character. Do you feel she is a good influence on him? What is her affect on the other members of the household?
3. Eva is a well-educated and experienced world traveler by the time she reaches Windsor. Yet, some of her actions would suggest a surprising naïveté. What role does this naïveté play in her becoming stranded in Canada? In her father's death? In her guarding of The Augsburg Miscellany? Is Eva's naïveté genuine, or is it a way to evade ultimate responsibility for her actions?
4. Insisting on the importance of perfection in the reading of the Torah, Joseph's mother remarks, "Once you start tampering with the truth, all is lost. Wars have, God help us, been fought over the interpretation of single words. We all make mistakes, boys, it's human nature, but then we are obligated to correct them. That's what God expects of us." What do you make of Joseph's taking The Augsburg Miscellany when Eva's back is turned? What motivates him to take it? How does his own interpretation of the act change over the years? Does he feel he has made a mistake and, if so, how does he envision correcting it?
5. Eva often uses her fantastic stories to evade the Ivris' questions about her past. When pressed, she is not above lying. (For example, she lies to Joseph about her husband.) What does Joseph make of Eva's lies? How is he complicit in the stories she makes up about herself?
6. What role does guilt play in Joseph's lifelong love for Eva?
7. In what way (or ways) is Asa wiser than Joseph?
8. Is Joseph's erudition his own way of compensating for his lack of beauty? How does this relate to his feeling that he would avoid the troubles visited upon the beautiful?
9. Asa's hardship is his blindness. Eva's greatest burden (but also her greatest joy) is the Augsburg Miscellany. What is Joseph's ultimate hardship?
10. Joseph creates a character in his successful book and names her Soul. The world seems to be as captivated by her as he is by Eva. Why is this? What does the character of Soul represent to Joseph? To his readers?
11. After achieving early success in his neuroanatomical studies, Joseph goes on to achieve even greater success, late in life, with the publication of The Illuminated Soul. How are Joseph's interests in the brain and the soul related? How are they contradictory? What does Joseph make of the connection between his scientific and imaginative endeavors?
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"A beautiful book about the endurance of the past, the fragility of the present, and the healing power of quiet love."
—Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader
"The Illuminated Soul is…about the pull of the past over the present and the profound effects that one person can have on another…it succeeds beautifully. Stollman's simple but elegiac prose, his deft characterizations and his knowledge of Jewish lore and history make The Illuminated Soul a novel with a big heart and, yes, soul."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"Stollman is outrageously talented…Alongside Allegra Goodman, Nathan Englander, Melvin Bukiet, and others, Stollman represents a younger generation of authors who not only embrace their Jewish heritage but interpret the world through its unique lenses."
—New York Newsday
"A wondrous narrative voice that is by turns delicate, patient, searching and unabashedly spiritual…Stollman's novel—as luminous as the sacred text at its center—will leave an equally lasting impression on the reader."
—Time Out New York
"A simple, emotionally powerful fable."
—Forward
"A beautiful work of art."
—The Seattle Times
"Stollman possesses a lucid writing style that reflects his knowledge of original Hebrew texts as well as other, more esoteric sources…The Illuminated Soul is a profound novel…but it is also a sturdy narrative that supports a strong and varied cast of characters while…staking out that elusive stretch of middle ground between faith and science."
—The Boston Globe
"The Illuminated Soul itself is dreamlike, taking place in a region of wonder that goes by the name of Windsor, Ont., but is really a transcendent place, touched by tragedy and foreboding, by clouds and flowers and prophecies and things unfathomable to the five senses."
—The Buffalo News
"Utterly graceful…Stollman is a writer of rare skill, every line molded and sculpted to perfection, and life in a small Canadian Jewish community is well rendered. The sense of loss pervading these Holocaust-stricken pages is almost overwhelming."
—Kirkus Reviews
"[A] thoughtful, resonant examination of Jewish life in the aftermath of the Holocaust…Stollman illuminates the mysteries of life with the clear eye of a scientist and the faith of a believer."
—Publishers Weekly
"Seductive."
—Booklist
"A rich effort…The story depicts Eva as a beautiful muse who left as suddenly as she came. The richness of Torah study, the ancient languages of the Near East, and the opening up of one's soul are some of the gifts that she bestows on the Ivris—and the reader…Highly recommended."
—Library Journal (starred review)
