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When free-spirited Batsheva moves into the close-knit Orthodox community of Memphis, Tennessee, the already precarious relationship between the Ladies Auxiliary and their teenage daughters is shaken to the core. In this extraordinary novel, Tova Mirvis takes us into the fascinating and insular world of the Memphis Orthodox Jews, one ripe with tradition and contradiction. Warm and wise, enchanting and funny, The Ladies Auxiliary brilliantly illuminates the timeless struggle between mothers and daughters, family and self, religious freedom and personal revelation, honoring the past and facing the future. An unforgettable story of uncommon atmosphere, profound insight, and winning humor, The Ladies Auxiliary is a triumphant work of fiction. (W. W. Norton)

Reviews

"Full of verve and chitzpah ... where Southern flavors meet Jewish sensibilities."

— The New York Times Book Review

"Compassionate and perceptive...The Triumph of this book is its portrayal of these women, whose community is a treasure of tradition and moral values...Mirvis has written a book that poses poignant questions even as it acknowledges that there may be no answers to them."

— USA Today

"Poignant, funny, sophisticated...The Orthodox answer to The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

— Mademoiselle

"Mirvis evokes [Orthodox Memphis] with compassion and telling detail."

— Detroit Free Press

"A SPARKLING DEBUT...A graceful novel with a strong sense of place, with vivid characters that are as Southern as the black-eyed peas they serve for Shabbat dinner, as Jewish as their homemade challah."

— Jewish Week

"[A] confident, insightful debut novel...Generous with humor and compassion, Mirvis paints tenderly nuanced portraits of strong female characters while scrutinizing an entrenched religious subculture whose traditions are threatened by modern temptations. Guilt, passion, prejudice, loneliness and independence—common themes in Jewish literature—are explored with sensitivity in a gentle story that captures its milieu with tolerant understanding, and plucks the heartstrings."

— Publisher's Weekly

"A debut that details, with wisdom and grace, the inevitable tensions between the comfort of community and the need for individual freedom, as a young widow and convert moves into a close-knit Orthodox Jewish neighborhood and becomes an unwitting catalyst for change...An impressive debut, up there on that high middle ground the Victorians made their own."

— Kirkus Reviews

"Brilliantly original ...insightful and compassionate, it is rich in detail and full of evocative power."

— Mary Gordon, author of Spending: A Novel

"A dash of The Crucible, a pinch of The Golem, a sharp eye, a keen ear an engaging sense of humor, and an incomparable narrative voice render The Ladies Auxiliary a small miracle. Tova Mirvis has transported the Salem witch hunt from Puritan New England to a contemporary Orthodox Jewish Community in Memphis, Tennessee, and the result is a highly original, wise and wonderful novel."

— Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of History on a Personal Note

"The Ladies Auxiliary is a truly compelling look into a community where the divine is always bumping up against the human."

— Elizabeth Strout, author of Amy and Isabelle

"Mirvis's first novel is filled with affectionately described scenes of Jewish life, including shabbos dinners and holiday celebrations; but the dilemma over how much change a religion can absorb before it loses its heart and soul—and its children—is one that applies to any creed."

— Booklist

"A well-wrought tale of fear and intolerance that is universal."

— Library Journal