In September 2024, I had the opportunity to speak about my life, my writing, and my books with Rob & Joan from the Meet the Author Podcast.
You're invited to listen in!
News, reviews, Israel, Bulgaria, and everything in between
In September 2024, I had the opportunity to speak about my life, my writing, and my books with Rob & Joan from the Meet the Author Podcast.
You're invited to listen in!
At 6:30 in the morning
on Wednesday, September 25th, sirens went off, warning of an impending rocket
attack on Tel Aviv. Along with the other passengers on the train that had
departed from Modi’in half an hour earlier, I lay on the floor. The train slowed
as it neared the Tel Aviv University Station. When it came to a stop, I rushed
off and took shelter in the arrival hall below the tracks.
It was the first time
that a missile fired by Hezbollah came close to striking Tel Aviv in the
ongoing and escalating conflict. The IDF Army confirmed it had intercepted the
surface-to-surface missile after it was launched from Lebanon. There were no
reports of casualties or damage.
I breathed a sigh of
relief and hurried toward the station’s exit. As I walked, I adjusted my
backpack and found that one of the pouches was unzipped. I felt inside and
discovered that my tablet was missing. Maybe in my rush to get off the train I
had placed it inside another pouch? Had I had left it on the train?
I need my tablet to
read
My journey to work on
the early morning train lasts 37 minutes, and I utilize the time to read. That
morning, I had been just a chapter or two short of finishing Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari, an excellent novel by a highly talented
writer. I was thoroughly enjoying the book and planning to write a very
complimentary review. But when I arrived at my office and checked my backpack,
I confirmed the fact that I had lost my tablet.
I opened a ticket on
the Israel Railways website reporting the loss. I joined several Facebook
groups—Lost and Found, Lost and Found in Tel Aviv, and Lost and Found on the
Train. I posted a quick note about losing my tablet and provided a brief
description. I checked my Facebook feed every hour to see if
anyone reported finding it.
A few words about my
tablet. It is a very old, outdated Samsung model, dating back to 2013. I only
use the tablet for reading. I don’t watch videos on the tablet; I don’t play
games. My tablet serves me solely as a digital book.
The most
distinguishing feature of the tablet is its black cover. The cover is as old as
the device and shows extensive signs of wear and tear. It’s faded and starting
to come apart. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a picture of the tablet to post on
Facebook.
One of the first
thoughts that went through my head was how would I finish the last pages of
Tsabari’s novel? I downloaded the Kindle app to my phone and on my return train
journey home, I read the ending of the book on a very small
screen.
I order a new
tablet and then…
A week and a half
passed, and I had given up hope of ever seeing my tablet again. I went online
and searched for a new tablet to buy. I didn’t want anything fancy, and I
certainly didn’t want an Amazon Kindle, a device that continues to frustrate my
wife months after she purchased it. I found an affordable model and made the
order. The tablet would be ready for pickup at an electronics store down the
street from my office the very next day.
And then I got a phone
call from Israel Railways.
“Do you have a white
tablet?” someone asked me.
I didn't know the color! I couldn't remember ever seeing the tablet without its fraying cover.
“Does it have a start
button at the bottom, like an iPhone 4?”
“I don’t know what an
iPhone 4 looks like,” I admitted.
Don't judge a digital
book by its cover
After work, I went to
the Lost and Found department at the Savidor Center Train Station. The clerk
couldn’t find a record of having called me that morning, but he did have my
report of a missing tablet listed in his files. “Is this one yours?” he said, holding
up a huge device.
“My tablet is
smaller.”
“What about this one?”
“No, mine is much
smaller”
“And this?”
I immediately
recognized the tablet by its old black cover. “That’s it!”
As the clerk wrote up
his report, I turned on the device. Amazingly, after having gone missing for a
week and a half, the battery was at 75%. And the Kindle app opened to the exact
page in Songs for the Brokenhearted that I had been reading when the
siren went off.
“You seem surprised,”
the clerk said.
“I can’t believe that
I found it.”
“There are good people
in this world,” the clerk said, referring to the honest anonymous train
passenger who had turned my tablet into Lost and Found. “And your tablet is a
very old model that no one uses anymore.”
No one uses? My tablet had just survived a missile attack and reappeared after disappearing for a week and a half! Even after all these years, it is still a suitable device for reading, especially when it comes to excellent novels like Songs
for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari.
# # #
“You know how it is with Yemeni people. Singing is in our
blood,” says one of the characters in the book. “We sing when we clean, we sing
when we cook. We sing when we’re happy. We sing when we’re sad. In
celebrations. Even in death.”
It is a death that brings Zohara, a 31-year-old PhD
candidate, back to Israel. Zohara’s mother, Saida, has died. The two hadn’t
always gotten along. ‘Only after I moved to New York had we reached a quiet,
dignified truce,’ Zohara tells herself. ‘I finally made it home again. and she
wasn’t here.’
Along with her sister Lizzie, Zohara sets out to purchase a
gravestone and pack up their mother’s home in the Sha’ariya Yemini neighborhood
of Petach Tikva. At the grocery store down the street, Zohara meets Nir, with
whom she went to elementary school. Nir’s mother, Yael, introduces her to the
sisterhood of women who gather at the community center to sing. As women traditionally
play secondary roles in Yemeni households, Zohara ‘started thinking of the
women’s songs, that insistence to be heard, as subversive, audacious, feminist
even. I liked the idea of the women using their creative expression as a form
of protest.’
When she discovers a set of old cassette tapes, the music 'brings
Zohara closer to her mother, to understand her more after she died than she did
when she was alive.' ‘It made me see my mother in a whole new light.’ Zohara is
shocked to learn that her mother not only sang but was also a talented poetess.
A woman capable of writing explicit lyrics.
‘If I were grapes strung on a vine, I’d squeeze the flesh
of my fruit and pour juice into your mouth’.
At its heart of Songs for the Brokenhearted is
a love story. It is the tale of Saida and Yaqub, who first met in an immigrant
camp in 1950, shortly after their arrival in Israel. “My heart is full of
rain. If it bursts, it might flood the whole time,” Saida sings, and the
young girl's beautiful voice captivates Yaqub. “Singing is the one thing that
keeps me sane in this place,” she tells him. “I miss the way we sang in Yemen,
all the women together.”
Zohara’s discovery of her mother’s musical talents makes her
reconsider the subject of her dissertation. She also reexamines her connection
with Iggy, a former lover and her current best friend. Or maybe her friendship
with Nir can advance to the next level, she wonders.
Tsabari, author of the award-winning The Best Place on
Earth short story collection, populates her pages with true to life
characters. Zohara’s nephew, Yoni, struggles to find meaning during the
politically charged weeks leading up to November 1995. Lizzie’s frustrations
with her sister are easily understood, and readers will readily connect with
Zohara, as she is drawn closer to her mother and learns more about herself in
the process.
You can almost hear Saida singing her original lyrics to
traditional Yemenite songs as you read this moving, highly recommended novel.
Ayelet Tsabari’s debut collection of short
stories, The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for
Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award. Her memoir The Art of
Leaving was a finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize, and the winner
of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir. She’s the co-editor of the
anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language and has taught
creative writing at Guelph MFA in Creative Writing and The University of King’s
College MFA.
Originally posted on The Times of Israel.
Related articles:
Review of
'The Art of Leaving' by Ayelet Tsabari
Review of 'The Best Place on Earth' by Ayelet Tsabari
One hundred days after the war began, Roni returned to the office for the first time. Much had changed since the beginning of October—there was a new office manager, the coffee machine had been replaced, and a fancy contraption dispensed freshly squeezed orange juice in the kitchen—but overall, things were just the same. The projects waiting for him were those he had dropped when unexpectedly he was called up for emergency reserve duty, and although his inbox was now bloated with unread emails, it was as if he had never left.
“Roni, welcome back!” Gideon exclaimed, slapping him on his shoulder—a shoulder that ached from having carried a weapon nearly twenty-four hours a day. Gideon sat at the desk across from Roni in the developers’ open space. “How are you doing, my brother?”
“I’m okay,” Roni said, swiveling his chair into position. He pushed aside the welcome-back gift basket, with its “Thank you for your service!” note, expensive bottle of wine, and imported chocolate, and adjusted his computer screen.
“No, really, how are you doing?”
How was he doing? How was anyone doing? He was lying when he said he was okay, but he didn’t want to say anything more. Not to Gideon, whom he rarely saw outside work hours. Not to his boss, Moishe, either, or any of his colleagues. He hadn’t spoken with his parents about what he went through, when he’d visited them the previous Shabbat, so why should he open up now?
Read the rest of the story on The Jewish Fiction Journal.
"My most very favourite was the short story 'Forgiveness'. This was because I found the character the grandfather for the age of 95 a remarkable man."
March 1943. Bulgarian authorities prepare to deport 20,000
Jews from Bulgaria, expelling thousands from their homes in Sofia and sending
them to the countryside. Held in detention camps, they fear they will meet the
same fate as the 11,343 Jews from the Bulgarian-occupied territories of Thrace
and Macedonia who were sent to their deaths in the Nazi concentration camps.
And yet, despite Bulgaria's being aligned with the Nazis, despite
the yellow stars the Jews wore on their clothing and the loss of their
businesses and homes, and despite their men being sent to forced labor camps, the
entire Bulgarian Jewish community survived the war. Who saved Bulgaria’s Jews?
Did Tsar Boris III, who had originally approved the deportation orders, have a
last-minute change of heart? Or can the rescue of Bulgarian Jewry be credited
to the brave politicians who confronted the antisemitic government, and along
with renowned members of the clergy and ordinary citizens, called for the
orders to be stopped?
This is a story that has fascinated me ever since I first
learned of it while living in Sofia on a two-year relocation contract. My job
in an online marketing company was temporarily positioned in the Bulgarian
capital, and my wife and I made the most of our Bulgarian adventure.
Bulgaria is a beautiful country
Bulgaria is blessed with thick green forests, towering
mountains, sandy and rocky seashores, and an abundance of fresh water.
Bulgaria’s villages are picturesque, and the country’s culture and traditions
are on colorful display everywhere you go. Bulgaria is a secular country, but
one with a high regard for its religious heritage. Monasteries gladly welcome
pilgrims and visitors. Today, incidents of antisemitism are rare.
One of the first places we visited was Sofia’s stunning
synagogue, the third largest in Europe. Built to accommodate some 1,300
worshippers, the building's main chandelier is the largest in the country. We
attended the synagogue’s 100th year anniversary celebrations, and I sat a few
rows behind Bulgaria’s president at the impressive ceremony held in the central
hall. We were guests at the community's Passover Seder, reading from a Haggadah
that was written in both Hebrew and Bulgarian.
Most of Bulgaria’s Jewish community made Aliyah shortly
after Israel’s independence and today the country’s Jewish population numbers
only a few thousand, most of it assimilated. Bulgarian Jews in Israel look back
fondly on their homeland, and I was blessed to having lived for a short time in
their country.
My heart was still in Bulgaria
Back home in Israel, I could not stop thinking of my
experiences. My heart was still in Bulgaria. I found I could return to the
country every day in my writing. I began publishing travel reports, encouraging
tourists to visit, and I turned to Bulgaria in my fiction as well, writing two
suspense novels set in the country.
But there was one story I was compelled to tell, and that
was the story of Bulgarian Jewry during World War Two. I am not a writer of
historical fiction, yet I eagerly dived into my research. I interviewed
journalists and historians; I surveyed friends and acquaintances. I sat for
hours in the library at Yad Vashem, and read the testimonies of Jews who had
lived in Bulgaria during those years. I wondered how could I accurately relate the
historical incidents of this incredible story.
The result of my research is my short story, ‘Forgiveness’. In
the story, an Israeli man is invited to a small village in the Rhodope
Mountains to meet an elderly man, a veteran of the Bulgarian army during the
war. The Israeli learns that his grandfather and this Bulgarian were once best
friends. While the grandfather was sent to the Bulgarian labor camps with the
threat of deportation and death hanging over his family’s heads, the Bulgarian
served in the occupied territories, playing a role in the expulsion of Jews
from their homes and their transportation to the death camps.
Two sides to what happened, presented in fiction. Feedback
has been positive, although there were those who pointed out inaccuracies in my
writing. A train leaving Macedonia could not possibly have made its way through
Sofia. A fire in a detention camp could not have been ignited by partisans. But
more importantly, I hadn’t emphasized the special relation Bulgaria had with
its Jewish citizens.
There is something unique in Bulgaria, a country in which
Jews have lived and felt welcome for centuries. I learned all this and more during
my brief stay in Sofia. I hope I have done justice to Bulgaria for rescuing its
Jews. And, that I have paid respect to the Jews of Thrace and Macedonia who
didn’t survive.
The story 'Forgiveness' is included in my new book, Rakiya
– Stories of Bulgaria. The book's twelve short stories are told in
the voices of both native Bulgarians and foreigners, visiting Bulgaria for the
first time. In the book I hope to share the country's history, culture,
traditions and natural wonders, and of course, the remarkable story of how
Bulgarian Jewry survived the Holocaust. It’s a story that I needed to tell.
Originally posted on The Times of Israel.
"This is a razor sharp and powerful short story collecting. Weaving real historical events, with the author's adoration for the country, this is a wonderful collection and tribute to Bulgaria."
I meet her on the vaporetto.
“First time in Venice?” she asks.
“Yes. I’m scouting out locations for a new film,” I reply, but then immediately regret revealing too much information. I stand near the rail, glancing at the warehouses on the waterfront as our water bus speeds toward its docking at St. Mark’s Square. I turn back to her. “What about you?”
“I’ve been here several times before,” she says. “But I keep returning.”
“I detect a British accent.”
“London.” She covers her mouth and coughs, and then says, “Born and raised there. And you? American, no doubt.”
“New York. Born and raised there.”
This makes her laugh. For the first time, I take a good look at her. Fortyish, I assume, perhaps a few years younger than me. Tall, slim, with a very pleasant face and brownish hair held tight in a youthful ponytail. Casual slacks and blouse, slightly more elegant than my own blue jeans and T-shirt emblazoned with ‘Italy’ on a tricolor flag. No wedding ring noticeable, which makes me subconsciously cover mine. Then, realizing I’m staring, I turn away, glancing at the other passengers on the morning boat ride.
Read the rest of the story on Libre.