BRAIDED

In this novel, a dying woman takes a spiritual journey through her tortured life and her complicated family origins.

Anxiety and loneliness plague 30-something Mira Shaw. She’s got a primo Seattle condo and a steady paycheck thanks to her business developer job at Amazon. But a harsh childhood, which included rape, has pushed Mira toward addiction. She wafts through the “dreamy fog” of oxys and dabbles in harder drugs as well, like cocaine. One day, her estranged mother compounds her life further with shocking news: Mira’s father, who she believed died years ago during a special-ops mission to assassinate Saddam Hussein, is alive but now dying of cancer. As Mira soon learns, her family, starting with her maternal grandparents, harbors a few alarming secrets. It’s a lot to take in, and, sadly, the distraught woman overdoses. As EMTs fight to save her, Mira’s spirit floats outside her body. She enters an “in-between place,” where a spirit guide takes her to dark, painful memories as well as the past lives of her relatives. Mira tries illuminating her family’s murky history and her own past while overcoming deeply rooted feelings of guilt. Though Speigel keeps Mira’s out-of-body experience largely ambiguous, he deftly addresses profound themes. Religion, for example, is not only a way characters try to understand life’s meaning, but also a possible explanation for what’s happening to Mira (her guide may be divine). At the same time, the author grounds the story with a realistic depiction of the endless torment caused by drug abuse. Mira may have easy access to drugs, but she incessantly needs them for energy and to calm herself down, sometimes one dose after another. Despite her troubles, the protagonist boasts an appealing bluntness. For example, as her spirit witnesses increasingly confusing images, Mira pleads with the guide to let her “finish dying and move on.”

A somber but insightful portrayal of addiction and a harrowing past.