In a post-apocalyptic wasteland where religion has been outlawed, a group of Jewish refugees embarks on a perilous journey to reach the coast, where a freighter awaits to take them to safety. Along the way, they face treacherous landscapes, relentless pursuit by a ruthless Senator, and internal conflicts about faith and survival.
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Wayfarers tells of a plucky group of Jewish refugees traveling across a dystopian America—where religion in any form has been outlawed—in a short, exciting adventure story that is at once somber and hopeful.
Prose: The writing is consistent in voice and tone, with strong descriptions balancing tight dialogue and economical expository passages.
Originality: The characters and scenario are original and well realized. While the book leans on established genre tropes, its emphasis on identity and religion gives it an original twist to a trusted formula.
Character/Execution: The characters are sufficiently developed and dynamic enough to build the band of travelers into a believable social unit, whose cooperative survival in a treacherous setting form the crux of the conflict engine. The book's broader theme of cultural survival buoys this nicely.
Date Submitted: August 14, 2024
Shorr masterfully builds a buzzing tension as Moshe and co. navigate a world where their beliefs—and very identities—are discarded as “invasive cultural artifact[s].” When their map finally surfaces, but in the hands of fugitive Abe Katz instead of their expected collaborator, Moshe must decide if he can trust this newcomer—a man secretly raised as a Jew but who worked for the senator in the past, before he was imprisoned for “harboring a discordant ideology.” Shorr shapes that dark cloud of mistrust throughout the novel, as neighbors turn against neighbors while the new government watches with satisfaction.
As Moshe, Abe, and the others travel east with the senator on their heels, Moshe, the keeper of the ark—a digital compendium of Judaic knowledge that stores the Torah, the Prophets, and the Talmud—feels the weight of what’s been lost. He commiserates, “I am the only one who remembers our ways. Sometimes, it feels as though I am the only one who cares to remember.” Dark yet hopeful, this is a solemn celebration of finding strength through knowledge and teaching—and an understated testament to faith and sacrifice, a reminder to never “forget who you are.”
Takeaway: Heartfelt celebration of knowledge and religious faith to overcome repression.
Comparable Titles: Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
