Review: The Forbidden Book
The Forbidden Book
by Sacha Lamb
Levine Querido, 2024
Category: Young Adult
Reviewer: Beth Gallego
Buy at Bookshop.org
Lamb’s sophomore novel (after 2023 Sydney Taylor Award-winner When the Angels Left the Old Country) is a fascinating dive into Jewish mythology and life in the Pale of Settlement. Sorel Kalmans, daughter of a well-to-do lumber merchant, is seventeen and engaged to the eldest son of the Esroger Rebbe. The marriage is meant to unite the local Jews, both Hasidic and Maskilic. The night before the wedding, Sorel makes an impulsive decision to run away instead. She disguises herself as a young man and gives her name as Isser Jacobs. But there is a real Isser Jacobs, and he is in serious trouble with some very dangerous people. In addition to escaping her own life, Sorel also must solve the mystery of what has happened to Isser and why.
Sorel has led a sheltered life, protected by her father’s wealth and power. Her education has not prepared her for the reality of life in Esrog, let alone its criminal underworld. Isser, a printer’s apprentice, has been involved in the local trade in political pamphlets translated into Yiddish, highly illegal to possess. Accompanied by Adela, Isser’s friend and a smart young woman, and Sam, a peddler who has a very big secret of his own, Sorel follows Isser’s trail to its end, realizing truths about herself and the life she wants to live.
Infused with magic, this historical fantasy draws on Jewish folklore about dybbuks and angels while exploring the gritty reality of Jewish life in the Russian Empire. In addition to pressures from the gentile world, divisions between Jews threaten to split the community apart. Political tensions are on the rise, with ideas about Jewish emancipation sneaking past the censors in the pamphlets Isser has been selling.
Women and men, too, live in largely separate worlds, bound by gender-appropriate behavior; Sorel must quickly learn how to act as a young man would, despite never having been familiar enough with any young men to observe them. At first reliant on Isser’s supernatural assistance, Sorel becomes comfortable in this new role, embracing her masculine aspects in a dawning realization of her genderqueer self. In addition, her attraction to Adela is more than just the influence of Isser in her mind, pushing her to examine another facet of her hitherto-unquestioned identity.
Rich in immersive detail and featuring complicated characters, this is an outstanding young adult novel that will appeal to many readers. This is an LGBTQ+ story, and it is a murder mystery, and it is a historical tale filled with fantasy and folklore. All of these threads come together while the reader keeps turning pages to find out what happens next.
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Reviewer Beth L. Gallego grew up outside Chicago, earned her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, and promptly moved to sunny Southern California, where she has been a Librarian since 2002.
Lamb’s sophomore novel (after 2023 Sydney Taylor Award-winner When the Angels Left the Old Country) is a fascinating dive into Jewish mythology and life in the Pale of Settlement. Sorel Kalmans, daughter of a well-to-do lumber merchant, is seventeen and engaged to the eldest son of the Esroger Rebbe. The marriage is meant to unite the local Jews, both Hasidic and Maskilic. The night before the wedding, Sorel makes an impulsive decision to run away instead. She disguises herself as a young man and gives her name as Isser Jacobs. But there is a real Isser Jacobs, and he is in serious trouble with some very dangerous people. In addition to escaping her own life, Sorel also must solve the mystery of what has happened to Isser and why.
Sorel has led a sheltered life, protected by her father’s wealth and power. Her education has not prepared her for the reality of life in Esrog, let alone its criminal underworld. Isser, a printer’s apprentice, has been involved in the local trade in political pamphlets translated into Yiddish, highly illegal to possess. Accompanied by Adela, Isser’s friend and a smart young woman, and Sam, a peddler who has a very big secret of his own, Sorel follows Isser’s trail to its end, realizing truths about herself and the life she wants to live.
Infused with magic, this historical fantasy draws on Jewish folklore about dybbuks and angels while exploring the gritty reality of Jewish life in the Russian Empire. In addition to pressures from the gentile world, divisions between Jews threaten to split the community apart. Political tensions are on the rise, with ideas about Jewish emancipation sneaking past the censors in the pamphlets Isser has been selling.
Women and men, too, live in largely separate worlds, bound by gender-appropriate behavior; Sorel must quickly learn how to act as a young man would, despite never having been familiar enough with any young men to observe them. At first reliant on Isser’s supernatural assistance, Sorel becomes comfortable in this new role, embracing her masculine aspects in a dawning realization of her genderqueer self. In addition, her attraction to Adela is more than just the influence of Isser in her mind, pushing her to examine another facet of her hitherto-unquestioned identity.
Rich in immersive detail and featuring complicated characters, this is an outstanding young adult novel that will appeal to many readers. This is an LGBTQ+ story, and it is a murder mystery, and it is a historical tale filled with fantasy and folklore. All of these threads come together while the reader keeps turning pages to find out what happens next.
Are you interested in reviewing books for The Sydney Taylor Shmooze? Click here!
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