The Best Place on Earth: Stories

The Best Place on Earth: Stories

Reminiscent of the early work of Jhumpa Lahiri, Ayelet Tsabariâ€™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, Tsabariâ€™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 Israelâ€™s Mizrahi Jews, featuring mothers and children, soldiers and bohemians, lovers and best friends, all searching for their place in the world. In â€œTikkun,â€ a man crosses paths with his free-spirited ex-girlfriendâ€”now a married Orthodox Jewâ€”and minutes later barely escapes tragedy. In â€œBrit Milah,â€ a mother travels from Israel to visit her daughter in Canada and is stunned by her grandsonâ€™s upbringing. A young medic in the Israeli army bends the rules to potentially dangerous consequence in â€œCasualties.â€ 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 â€œSay It Again, Say Something Else.â€ And in the moving title story, two estranged sistersâ€”one whose marriage is ending, the other whose relationship is just beginningâ€”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 motherâ€™s rootless past. Tsabariâ€™s voice is gentle yet wise, illuminating the burdens of history, the strength of the heart, and our universal desire to belong.

Praise for The Best Place on Earth

â€œItâ€™s impossible not to be awestruck by the depth and power rendered in Tsabariâ€™s stories.â€â€”Elle

â€œTsabari creates complex, conflicted, prickly people you'll want to get to know better.â€â€”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

â€œThereâ€™s remarkable scope in Ayelet Tsabariâ€™s The Best Place on Earth, which interweaves stories of discrimination, loss, displacement, sex, death, religion, and a host of other issues. And yet, despite the range of viewpoints and the different facets of Israeli society explored, this is a collection that always stays intensely personal, the broader forces of history moving not merely across nations but within the souls of her beautifully conceived characters.â€â€”Phil Klay, National Book Awardâ€“winning author of Redeployment

â€œWith incredible compassion and a delicate touch, Ayelet Tsabari explores the heartbreak inherent in forming bonds, whether with another person or with a whole country. The Best Place on Earth, a complicated love song to Israel, is a sure-footed and stunningly skillful debut.â€â€”Shelly Oria, author of New York 1, Tel Aviv 0

â€œPowerful . . . brilliant . . . These stories . . . depict minorities so skillfully, with such a light and accurate touch.â€â€”The Daily Beast

â€œHighly recommended . . . Compelling and compassionate; [Tsabariâ€™s stories] speak out from the heart of Israeli society and experiences. . . . The stories of The Best Place on Earth leave you wishing they wouldnâ€™t end.â€â€”The Times of Israel

â€œThis 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 charactersâ€™ psyches.â€â€”Publishers Weekly
Country USA
Brand Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 9780812988932
Model 0812988930
ReleaseDate 2016-03-08
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780812988932

Country	USA
Brand	Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	9780812988932
Model	0812988930
ReleaseDate	2016-03-08
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780812988932

The Best Place on Earth: Stories

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