Best Place On Earth The

Tsabaris characters will step off the page to captivate readers. PUBLISHERS WEEKLYConfident original and humane these stories are peopled with characters at the crossroads of nationalities religions and communities: expatriates travellers immigrants and locals. The Best Place on Earth illuminates the tenuous connectionsforged frayed and occasionally destroyedbetween cultures between generations and across the gulf of transformation and loss the powerfully affecting opening story Tikkun a chance meeting between a man and his former lover carries them through near tragedy and into unexpected peace. In Casualties Tsabari takes us into the militarya world every Israeli knows all too wellwith a brusque sexy young female soldier who forges medical leave forms to make ends meet.Poets soldiers siblings and dissenters the protagonists here are mostly Israelis of Mizrahi background (Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent) whose stories have rarely been told in literature. In illustrating the lives of those whose identities swing from fiercely patriotic to powerfully global Ayelet Tsabari explores Israeli history even as she reveals the universality of war love heartbreak and hope.