"Trail of Miracles" by Smadar Hezfeld is a melancholy, powerful tale, with much depth, yet told in a plain/detached, straightforward manner. An interesting story of a Hassidic woman, married very young, enduring many changes and hardships in her life yet prevailing. Enlightening and impressionable. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

Intersting historical fiction about a determined young woman. Thanks to AmazonCrossing for bringing world fiction to the US in English.

I didn't always understand exactly what was going on, probably because I'm not used to a life lived according to the will of other people. But I read on, quite fascinated, to the end.

The writing is almost poetic with a hallucinogenic feel at times, owing as much to the translator as the author, I imagine.

It is not often that i am stumped for words when reviewing a book, but i am on this occasion. I stumbled over how to pronounce some of the names and places, which did take away some of the enjoyment. It is very different to what i am used to reading and takes time to get used to the style of writing. I'm sure there are some who will enjoy the lyrical style of writing, but unfortunately not for me.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers. This is my honest review.

A beautiful story - maybe too short, as it makes you hungry to read more - about resilience and seeing life as a challenge to move up on the ladder of knowing yourself and understanding the world. Gittel is a woman able to overcome her modest condition assigned by men in a modest and wise way, without giving up her dream. It is also an account about loneliness and being forced of taking decisions to avoid spiritual oblivion. A well told story that makes you think!

This short story/memoir is set in 18th century Ukraine. As the story starts, it takes some time (15% out of 107 pages) to reveal its direction. Once 12 year old Grittel gets matched with a rabbi, her journey from her house to his takes next 10% of the book. She finds solace in her father-in-law and he tells her to be patient. Meanwhile, she immerses herself in studies and imagines her dream trip to Jerusalem and “walking beside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our holy forefathers, and their wives and children.” She has two sons who devote themselves to studying Torah. When her husband dies, she makes a decision to follow her dream to avoid another marriage.

The story is not well-developed. It is very flat, missing feelings. The main character is not good about expressing her feelings. No connection with main or any character. We hardly get to know her sons. Her relationship with her father-in-law is just a mention. What is worth developing in this story is all too brief. There is no sense of time besides mentioning that it’s during the time of Napoleon and Turks/Ottomans ruling over Constantinople/Istanbul. There is no sense of place besides the author mentioning it in the description of the story and then in the story mentioning of Grittel moving north to her betrothed.

Gittel, the daughter of a torah scholar, is only twelve when she is sought out as a wife for a much older rabbi. She doesn't like her husband's cold and unfeeling ways of dealing with her but finds comfort in her father-in-law, a man who is renowned among the Hasidim in her community. She also finds great joy in her two sons. When both her father-in-law and husband die in quick succession, Gittel is encouraged by her community to seek a new husband. Her husband visits her in dreams to demand that she not remarry and Gittel is more than happy to oblige, remembering the loneliness she felt in her marriage. She instead decides to embark on a journey to Jerusalem as she once did as a child with her brother.

This book was very short and an interesting story but it was a bit slow for me. I felt that the story had a lot more potential than was presented. There were simply not enough words for good characters to be built but they were likeable. I liked Gittel and her story. One thing that I liked about this book was that the author did not take a judgmental viewpoint about the cultures that she was writing about. All religions and cultures in the book were treated with respect. I have read a lot of books about the Hasidim and that is not always the case. While there are many practices of their culture that modern Westerns may not understand, such as Gittel's young marriage, one must understand that this was not so uncommon in the community at that time. While the book was much slower than I wished it would have been and was not as developed as I would have liked, I still enjoyed the book. I think it would be a good book for those looking for a cultural read or historical fiction, especially for those interested in Eastern European Jewish culture.

Trail of Miracles is a short book but very impactful. It tells the of the journey of a woman who eventually goes to Jerusalem. It is a story of perserverence and faith.
This book is based on the true story of a woman who was the daughter of a well known Torah scholar and was married at twelve due to a prophetic revelation. I love that it is a translated book as I love reading books from other cultures and expanding my horizons by doing so. I think this would be a good book for anyone interested in world literature or Judaism.

I received this ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

This short book (100+ pages) is set in eighteenth-century Ukraine. At age 12, her marriage is arranged to a rabbi who is extremely older than her. She now has two sons, widowed and embarks on a journey to Jerusalem.

Gittel has a lot of dreams with imagery drawn from Jewish traditions. The dream scenes give the book an ethereal aura.

3☆

Israeli author Herzfeld’s first English-language release is short but lyrically powerful. Addressing the God she loves, Gittel, a Jewish woman born in a Ukrainian village in the late 18th century, delivers an account which simultaneously serves as an impassioned memoir, her expression of faith, and a lament for the path she didn’t choose. In her old age, Gittel lives in Jerusalem, a land of three faiths, working as a washerwoman and healing the sick. As she reveals, her journey to the Holy City was an unusual one.

When she is just twelve, her devout parents arrange her hasty marriage to Avraham, son of the Maggid (itinerant preacher) of Mezeritch, a match suggested by his spiritual advisors in order to save Avraham’s life. Feeling abandoned by her father, who’s too busy studying Torah to tell her goodbye, and neglected by her silent, wraithlike husband, Gittel lives a frightened, lonely existence in her new home. Her main consolation is her growing friendship with her father-in-law, a prominent disciple of the new Hasidic movement. “A splendid future awaits you, Gittel,” he tells her, “and it is my voice and eyes that will follow you every moment.” His words and support give her hope. Years later, after his death and her husband’s, Gittel refuses to remarry. Instead, she dares to pursue her childhood dream of a life in Jerusalem, leaving her two young sons in another’s care.

Gittel’s account follows the path of her thoughts, from her marriage’s unhappy early days to her present life of poverty and prayer to her earlier journey south, a rare feat for a woman alone. The novel is replete with Eastern European Jewish customs, and its tone is frequently mystical. The details are specific to its time and place, while Trail of Miracles follows in the tradition of presenting little-known historical women’s voices.

(from the Historical Novels Review's May 2017 issue)

This book tells of Gittel's soul searching journey for a closer connection with God. Being married at the tender age of twelve and becoming a widow after a few years, she chose to go on a personal pilgrimage in search of a deeper relationship with God. She walked away from all that she knew and her two sons to journey to the unknown,seeking a greater divine connection something she craved since her husband died. This book is purposefully driven and deeply inspirational.