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Published Mar 2016
272 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
Reminiscent of the early work of Jhumpa Lahiri, Ayelet Tsabari's award-winning debut collection of stories is global in scope yet intimate in feel, beautifully written, and emotionally powerful.
From Israel to India to Canada, Tsabari's indelible characters grapple with love, violence, faith, the slipperiness of identity, and the challenges of balancing old traditions with modern times.
These eleven spellbinding stories often focus on Israel's Mizrahi Jews, featuring mothers and children, soldiers and bohemians, lovers and best friends, all searching for their place in the world. In "Tikkun," a man crosses paths with his free-spirited ex-girlfriend - now a married Orthodox Jew - and minutes later barely escapes tragedy. In "Brit Milah," a mother travels from Israel to visit her daughter in Canada and is stunned by her grandson's upbringing. A young medic in the Israeli army bends the rules to potentially dangerous consequence in "Casualties." After her mom passes away, a teenage girl comes to live with her aunt outside Tel Aviv and has her first experience with unrequited love in "Say It Again, Say Something Else." And in the moving title story, two estranged sisters - one whose marriage is ending, the other whose relationship is just beginning—try to recapture the close bond they had as kids.
Absorbing, tender, and sharply observed, The Best Place on Earth infuses moments of sorrow with small moments of grace: a boy composes poetry in a bomb shelter, an old photo helps a girl make sense of her mother's rootless past. Tsabari's voice is gentle yet wise, illuminating the burdens of history, the strength of the heart, and our universal desire to belong.
"Starred Review. Tsabari creates complex, conflicted, prickly people you'll want to get to know better." - Kirkus
"This short story collection is a fiction debut for Tsabari, but it demonstrates that she is already a talented storyteller... Her writing has an immediacy and power that invites readers into her characters' psyches." - Publishers Weekly
"Powerful ... brilliant ... These stories ... depict minorities so skillfully, with such a light and accurate touch." - The Daily Beast
"Highly recommended ... Compelling and compassionate; [Tsabari's stories] speak out from the heart of Israeli society and experiences. ... The stories of The Best Place on Earth leave you wishing they wouldn't end." - The Times of Israel
"There's remarkable scope in Ayelet Tsabari's The Best Place on Earth, which interweaves stories of discrimination, loss, displacement, sex, death, religion, and a host of other issues." - Phil Klay, National Book Award–winning author of Redeployment
This information about The Best Place on Earth was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ayelet Tsabari was born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. After serving in the Israeli army, she traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe, and now lives in Toronto, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto. The Best Place on Earth won the prestigious Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. In addition to writing, she has worked as a photographer and journalist.
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