The Wayfarer

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When her brother is murdered, Jessie isn't able to cry for him. She has no tears. Rage chokes her, and an overwhelming desire to see the murderer die. Until that moment, Jessie lived a good life with her husband in a comfortable Tiburon apartment overlooking the Golden Gate. Her career, too, flourished; a journalist with a column dedicated to women. From around the world they email her their problems and their tragedies.
But when Zeb dies, she gives up everything and closes out everyone. But there's one person in her life she can't seem to give up. Even through her grief she finds herself worrying about her cyber-friend Amitha in Sri Lanka. Amitha's American schooling places her between worlds, and she cannot find a place in either. The two young women share a strong bond, but communication from Amitha breaks off. Has she been swallowed by the jungle, by people who worship an elephant tooth? By the Tamil Tigers?
Concern for her friend prompts Jessie to think of her own loss in a new way. As a result, her brother appears to her to become her spirit guide. He encourages her not to pick up her old life, but to embark on a journey to a new one, a quest. "At the last day," he quotes, "you will not be asked, 'Why were you not Moses?' You may be asked, 'Why were you not Jessie?'"
As the book unfolds, Amitha's story and others are told: the grandmother in Bogota who searches for a "disappeared one"; the African gynecologist working for WHO to combat the inhumane custom of infibulation; a Palestinian girl from the West Bank trained as a suicide bomber.
The quest Zeb sends Jessie on confronts, addresses, and at times plunges her into problems of our global world, which turn personal and take over her life. This book was conceived in part because of the many letters the author has received from five continents. We are all connected today, all responsible for what happens in this world.