A rabbi uses his arcane knowledge of the Kabbalah to protect himself and others during the Holocaust but starts down an ethical slippery slope when he later uses the power for revenge in The Tribe.

A group of Jewish men from the same Polish town miraculously survive internment the Belzec extermination camp. When finally liberated, those in their barracks are the only ones in camp with food, even though the Nazis themselves were starving. Rabbi Jacob Levy keeps the secret of their survival and the “tribe” goes on to flourish in 1980’s Brooklyn, raising families and remaining good friends. But their tight-knit neighborhood is changing. Levy’s son, Adam, is murdered by a gang of teenagers and Black police detective Roger Hawkins vows to bring the culprits to justice. Hawkins is equally devastated by the murder: Adam was his friend, and Jacob is like a surrogate father to him. After Hawkins admits he cannot guarantee an extensive punishment for the teens, the five boys are found gruesomely murdered, the crime scene covered in wet clay. Hawkins suspects Jacob is involved, and their relationship deteriorates. Later, Adam’s wife, Rachel, believes that Jacob and his friends are involved in the brutal killings of a Black family. Together she and Hawkins join forces to uncover the relentless supernatural force that Jacob has hidden from them.

The Tribe is a brilliant, multilayered read. On a philosophical level, it delves deeply into the nature of good and evil. Men who not only survive unspeakable atrocities but transcend them, are simultaneously so deeply scarred that they end up using evil to do what they believe is good: protecting their own threatened identity at the expense of others. On a societal level, Wood explores differing forms of prejudice. Hawkins is discriminated against and feared by most of Levy’s friends, and by other Black officers on the force who are jealous of his position. Rachel comes to realize that her own religion is exclusionary towards women. The lifeblood of the story is Wood’s characters, which simply shine. Complex, flawed, and wonderfully human, filled with joy, humor, and heartbreak, their private lives are as rich as yours or mine. The Tribe invites the reader into the Jewish community, immersing us in cultural detail, but as with Rachel and Hawkins, we are only visiting: we can never fully comprehend what the tribe endured, nor can we ever completely be included in their inner circle. But through Hawkins’ and Rachel’s growing romance, Wood softly urges readers to both honor the old and embrace the new.

The Tribe is relentless: beautiful, dark, and thought-provoking. I just got a copy for my brother for Christmas. (Don’t tell him!)