Let’s be hon­est: it was crazy spend­ing $150 mil­lion to cre­ate the world’s only Jew­ish board­ing school and put it in rur­al Geor­gia. Cra­zier still was Jeff Taylor’s belief he could save Hamp­ton Acres Hebrew Acad­e­my, or HAHA, before it went bel­ly up.

Jeff, a for­mer hedge fund man­ag­er and lawyer, thinks he’s seen all the curve­balls life can throw…until he takes the HAHA helm. There he runs smack into Tow­er of Babel-like dys­func­tion. Between the school’s evap­o­rat­ing bank account, the founder’s daugh­ter, who uses smoke and mir­rors to hide HAHA’s finan­cial frailty, the rab­bi who always has one more fast day to add, the dynasty-build­ing lacrosse coach, the school coun­selor who needs coun­sel­ing, the needy stu­dents and need­i­er par­ents, Jeff needs a mir­a­cle to keep HAHA afloat.

Not one to count on mir­a­cles, Jeff wants out before HAHA implodes. But then the dan­ger becomes lit­er­al when HAHA receives a rapper’s bomb threat. Jeff must decide whether sav­ing HAHA is possible…or whether he’ll be lucky to save himself.

The Acad­e­my of Smoke & Mir­rors is hilar­i­ous and heart­warm­ing, meshuga and mov­ing. It will delight any­one who has ever been, or root­ed for, the underdog.