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Ellis Shuman

Review of ‘Songs for the Brokenhearted’ by Ayelet Tsabari

If there’s a soundtrack to Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari (Random House, September 10, 2024), it probably sounds very much like Ofra Haza’s ‘Yemenite Songs’ album. Like the album, this outstanding novel is a stage for Yemenite women sharing the traditional, sinuous tunes of a culture where singing is a day-to-day activity.

“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 that 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.

About the Author
Ellis Shuman made aliya to Jerusalem as a teenager, served in the IDF, was a founding member of a kibbutz, and now lives on Moshav Neve Ilan. Ellis is the author of ‘The Burgas Affair’ – a crime thriller set in Israel and Bulgaria; ‘Valley of Thracians’ - a suspense novel set in Bulgaria; and 'The Virtual Kibbutz' - a collection of short stories. His writing has appeared in The Times of Israel, The Huffington Post, The Jerusalem Post, Israel Insider, and on a wide range of Internet websites. Ellis lived with his wife for two years in Bulgaria, and blogs regularly about Israel, Bulgaria, books, and writing.
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