Bruno's Conversion

"In Bruno's Conversion, a transformative exploration of faith and modern love, Bruno Kirsch, a divorced middle-aged professor of French literature, finds himself stranded in Miami Beach over Christmas break when his "shiksa" lover, Mary-whose idea it was to vacation there-abandons him for home back in New York City. Soon after, Bruno sets his sights on a striking one-legged woman named Suzie, whom he spots on his morning walk along the beach, and quickly develops an all-consuming obsession over how to approach her. While he fantasizes about their future love, the Hasids of Miami Beach act as a potent reminder of his heritage and conflicted faith. Eventually caught in a hypnotic tourist trap, a disoriented Bruno is forced to confront his religious convictions, his objectification of women, and his strange new independence. Inescapably unforgiving and darkly comical, Tsipi Keller's Bruno's Conversion cleverly captures the post-divorce single life of middle-aged men and all their vulnerabilities"--