Ways to Lucena by Mois Benarroch (translated by P. Diane Schneider) is a religious and historically based story with a sci-fi twist. This book is for readers who enjoy alternate history narratives and a different perception of historical events. This book was insightful and it made me wonder and ask questions regarding religion. The story is about a successful lawyer of Jewish descent living and working in Mexico. He is unhappily married to a demanding wife who doesn’t hide the fact that money motivates her to remain married to him . The main character’s suicidal thoughts are slowly getting the better of him; his slogan, “everything is nothing”, is a sentiment he applies to every aspect of his life, and it is this repeated lament that causes him to be so negative. To survive his depression, he decides to return to his roots, living a simpler life as a simpler man. He begins to dream, and in this reawakening of his subconscious, he rediscovers his long-lost passion for writing. …show more content…
Religion plays a crucial part in the novel. The main character is a Christian, but as his surname makes clear, he is of Jewish extraction. As he begins to live a simpler life truer to his roots, he also discovers more of Judaism in a bid to understand himself better and to reverse what could be considered a renunciation of his origins and a resulting betrayal of himself and his heritage . The way the author personifies the narrative of the Jewish people by focusing on a character and allowing the reader to experience the story with a character they can empathise with is characteristic of his