It is exciting when, based really on nothing more than vaguely remembered praise and the cover blurb, you pick up a book by a new author and find yourself immediately hooked. The Best Place on Earth is a collection of short stories by Ayelet Tsabari an Israeli of Yemeni descent, who now lives in Canada. She paints a confronting, intimate portrait of modern-day Israel, its contradictions and complexities, all against the backdrop of ever-present militarism and violence.
In Eilat, two teenage friends hitchhike to Sinai for their last summer before army service and just weeks before the negotiated military withdrawal. But what was supposed to be a carefree break ends up challenging one girl’s most intimate sense of who she really is.
In Brit Maleh, Tsabaru explores the changing attitudes of young Israelis towards religion