B'racha for a .38 Special: A Guide for the Perplexed

When Aubrey Bishop, tarnished rock star and rumored Anti-Semite, pursues young Salla Kahn, a Jewish Studies scholar, they become cannon fodder for armchair combatants fighting a holy war half a world away.

Peopled with an unforgettable cast of characters-a Jewish grandmother who's a regular at the gun club, a hipster Muslim with full sleeve tattoos, an angry video gamer from the Israeli Defense Forces-Bracha for a .38 Special is a page-turning love story of uncontrolled passion with Shakespearean outcomes.

Newcomer Tanya Coovadia has written an enthralling and provocative exploration of unintended consequences. By turns love story, comedy and thriller, it's a nod to Romeo and Juliet and an ode to the Coen Brothers. It's also an omniscient view of a zealot, a lover, a seeker, a cat. Each is intimately aware of his/her/its own consciousness and only dimly aware of the inner voices of others. But there is one, it is said, who hears all.