NIGHT OWLS

Jewish mythology, Yiddish theater, and New York City history meet in the present day.

The Sender sisters, Molly and Clara, are surprisingly successful 18-year-old co-managers of a revived Yiddish theater on Second Avenue in Manhattan. That’s because they’re also more than a century old; Molly and Clara are Estries, undead women from Ashkenazi lore who turn into blood-drinking monsters and can fly around on owls’ wings. They’ve done a good job of keeping their true identities a secret, but of course, new love interests complicate everything. Molly’s girlfriend, Anat, gets possessed by a dybbuk who might have ties to Molly’s past. Clara would insist that she doesn’t have feelings for Boaz, their Syrian Jewish employee, but his ability to see the dead and his family’s possession of a magic ring turn everyone’s world upside down. The plot becomes a bit rudderless once the action picks up in the various storylines, circling around several loci but never quite making the stakes and motivations feel clear or urgent. Debut author Vishny’s writing is at times muddy but mostly unobtrusive and is most successful when re-creating scenes from older history. Overall, the story excels at taking relatively hidden aspects of Jewish history, contemporary community life, and bubbe meises (or fables) and making them feel fresh and vibrant.

A spirited retelling of lesser-known tales.