A brilliantly conceived novel imagining the little understood lives of Moses de León, the 13th-century Spanish kabbalist thought to have authored the Zohar, the central work of Jewish mysticism, and Carlos Castaneda, a 20th-century Peruvian anthropologist who claimed extraordinary experiences in the modern mystical classic, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. In this novel, Alpert matches their visions with his own conjurings of their inner lives. Dreams of strange figures; encounters with kabbalists and curanderos; and studies with unlikely spiritual guides, intertwine across traditions in uncanny ways. Praise for The Books of SplendorAn imaginative novel that hyperloops the interior lives of two of the most important authors of world mystical literature: 13th-century Castilian Rabbi Moses de Leon (Zohar) and 20th-century Peruvian and Californian Carlos Castaneda (Don Juan). In creative pre-histories we meet De Leon's adopted son, the Yanuka, and Castaneda's Cajamarcan mentor, a renegade Chabad Hasid who experiments with the entheogen ayahuasca. A fascinating literary doppelgänger, if not a soul-impregnation.- Menachem Kallus, author of Pillar of PrayerIf you want to learn the mysteries of Kabbalah in a delightful manner and, at the same time, be enthralled by an amazing tale, then this book is for you. Dive in! ... The author-composing this work pseudonymously, as did the authors of the Zohar-is an esteemed scholar of Jewish spirituality and a gifted writer.- Daniel Matt, author of The Essential Kabbalah, and translator of the multi-volume annotated, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition

A brilliantly conceived novel imagining the little understood lives of Moses de León, the 13th-century Spanish kabbalist thought to have authored the Zohar, the central work of Jewish mysticism, and Carlos Castaneda, a 20th-century Peruvian anthropologist who claimed extraordinary experiences in the modern mystical classic, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. In this novel, Alpert matches their visions with his own conjurings of their inner lives. Dreams of strange figures; encounters with kabbalists and curanderos; and studies with unlikely spiritual guides, intertwine across traditions in uncanny ways. Praise for The Books of SplendorAn imaginative novel that hyperloops the interior lives of two of the most important authors of world mystical literature: 13th-century Castilian Rabbi Moses de Leon (Zohar) and 20th-century Peruvian and Californian Carlos Castaneda (Don Juan). In creative pre-histories we meet De Leon's adopted son, the Yanuka, and Castaneda's Cajamarcan mentor, a renegade Chabad Hasid who experiments with the entheogen ayahuasca. A fascinating literary doppelgänger, if not a soul-impregnation.- Menachem Kallus, author of Pillar of PrayerIf you want to learn the mysteries of Kabbalah in a delightful manner and, at the same time, be enthralled by an amazing tale, then this book is for you. Dive in! ... The author-composing this work pseudonymously, as did the authors of the Zohar-is an esteemed scholar of Jewish spirituality and a gifted writer.- Daniel Matt, author of The Essential Kabbalah, and translator of the multi-volume annotated, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition