My Soul to Keep

To read My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due, you must have the capacity to suspend all disbelief for a couple of hundred pages, since the hunky, sax-playing hero, Dawit, is 500 years old and has the ability to heal himself overnight — thanks to a ritual he underwent aeons ago in Ethiopia that involved incantations, poison, and some very special blood. When Dawit gets overly attached to his mortal loves — his wife and daughter — he decides to make them comrades in eternity, a decision that doesn't sit well with other members of his coven. In the end, what you get for entering this consistently imagined world is an entertaining story that uses the supernatural to get at everyday issues of responsibility, faith, and — most relevantly — overcoming disease. B+