Jane Austen and Mordecai Richler are not names that suggest an immediate association. But they are the antecedents that the publisher of Elaine Kalman Naves’s debut novel invoke to describe the story of three women – known as the Three Graces – who worship at the same Montreal synagogue. Naves, a former literary columnist for the Montreal Gazette, examines friendship among women in the context of faith and religious politics. The documentary-like dissection of contemporary women’s lives recalls Austen; the scabrous humour and contemporary Montreal setting suggest Richler.