Taking Leave

“In this moving memoir Deborah Kapchan artfully unveils the connections among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Stretching beyond Kapchan’s journey of personal and intellectual self-discovery, this wonderful literary achievement brings us much-needed measures of inspired hope to our troubled times.” - Paul Stoller, author of Wisdom from the Edge: Writing Ethnography in Turbulent Times

“This book is a joy to read, speaking deeply and powerfully to a shared and fundamental human experience by means of Deborah Kapchan’s unique vision and voice. I adore this touching and remarkable book.” - Martin Shuster, author of How to Measure a World? A Philosophy of Judaism

"While she draws elegant parallels between faiths, Kapchan is at her most revelatory when she’s exploring spirituality itself as a kind of endless search for meaning—'taking leave' of one religion, identity, or mode of thinking to seek another—as well as contemplating the limits to that process. . . . Astute and nuanced, this resonates." - Publishers Weekly

"Lyrical, probing, and unflinching, the book is a meditation on presence, absence, and what it means to live between." - Brian K. Mahoney, Chronogram