Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World by Susan Silverman

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From activist, speaker, mother of five, and rabbi Susan Silverman (sister of comedian Sarah): a funny, moving, sparkling memoir about home, identity, family, and faith.

Susan Silverman grew up with parents who were, both before and after a devastating loss, atheists. Yet, as a young adult, she shocked everyone who knew her (“But you were elected Class Flirt in high school!”) and became a rabbi. What was not surprising, however, was that she built her own big, unwieldy family through both birth and adoption, something she had intended from childhood. With three daughters and two sons (“We produce girls and import boys”), this unique family becomes a metaphor for the world’s contradictions and complexities—a microcosm of the tragedy and joy, hope and despair, cruelty and compassion, predictability and absurdity of this world we all live in. A meditation on identity, faith, and belonging—one that’s as funny as it is moving—Casting Lots will resonate with anyone who has struggled to find their place in the world and to understand the significance of that place.