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The Art of Leaving
The Art of Leaving: A Memoir | Ayelet Tsabari
10 posts | 9 read | 28 to read
An unforgettable memoir about a young woman who tries to outrun loss, but eventually finds a way home. Ayelet Tsabari was 21 years old the first time she left Tel Aviv with no plans to return. Restless after two turbulent mandatory years in the Israel Defense Forces, Tsabari longed to get away. It was not the never-ending conflict that drove her, but the grief that had shaken the foundations of her home. The loss of Tsabaris beloved father in years past had left her alienated and exiled within her own large Yemeni family and at odds with her Mizrahi identity. By leaving, she would be free to reinvent herself and to rewrite her own story. For nearly a decade, Tsabari travelled, through India, Europe, the US and Canada, as though her life might go stagnant without perpetual motion. She moved fast and often becauseas in the Intifadait was safer to keep going than to stand still. Soon the act of leavingjobs, friends and relationshipscame to feel most like home. But a series of dramatic events forced Tsabari to examine her choices and her feelings of longing and displacement. By periodically returning to Israel, Tsabari began to examine her Jewish-Yemeni background and the Mizrahi identity she had once rejected, as well as unearthing a family history that had been untold for years. What she found resonated deeply with her own immigrant experience and struggles with new motherhood. Beautifully written, frank and poignant, The Art of Leaving is a courageous coming-of-age story that reflects on identity and belonging and that explores themes of family and homeboth inherited and chosen.
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review
TheBookHippie
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Pickpick

So good!!! I devoured it. Library book.

#FOODANDLIT ISRAEL

Ayelet Tsabari is an Israeli-Canadian writer. She was born in Israel into a large family of Yemeni descent. She studied at the Simon Fraser University Writers' Studio and the University of Guelph MFA program in Creative Writing.

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TheKidUpstairs
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Pickpick

My hold came in early, and I devoured this memoir in two days. Beautiful, thoughtful look at a life that is so outside of my own experience, I was enthralled by it. Tsabari writes with purpose, probing into her own experiences and motivations as she examines her search for the meaning of home. I highly recommend it, this one will sit with me for quite some time.

#FoodandLit #Israel @Butterfinger @Texreader

TheKidUpstairs For #FoodandLit readers, there is a wonderful essay connecting to her mother's recipes. It is beautifully written, and quite inspiring when you're looking for recipes to try! 3y
behudd Would this be considered a food memoir? Or is it just that section that has recipes? A friend loves food writing & I‘m always looking for books for her :) 3y
TheKidUpstairs @behudd not a food memoir, and not even full recipes, just a section that talks about the food her mother cooks. The essay is very good food writing but it is just one essay within the larger memoir. 3y
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Texreader Sounds so good 3y
behudd @TheKidUpstairs ok thank you!! 3y
TheBookHippie Almost done with it! It‘s very good!! 3y
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TheBookHippie
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Memoir #FOODANDLIT ISRAEL

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Cinfhen
Art of Leaving: A Memoir | Ayelet Tsabari
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#MOvember #PowerOfGoodbye This was a really moving memoir. Ayelet Tsabari beautifully and honestly shares the sights, sounds, smells of her homeland with all of its thorns and messy messages and then describes how it feels to leave it behind. This book really resonated with me.

Crazeedi Its sounds fascinating, I'll have to see if it's an ebook 4y
Crazeedi I read inheritance on your recommendation, it was good 4y
Lindy I‘ve been meaning to read this. Loved her short stories: 4y
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Cinfhen I think you would love this one @Lindy although a lot of the same material is repeated from her short story collection. I thought it was better in essay form. 4y
Lindy @Cinfhen 👍 4y
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Anna40
Art of Leaving: A Memoir | Ayelet Tsabari
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Pickpick

Recurring themes are her struggle to belong, the loss of her father, her heritage and insecurities. The way she captures her feelings and puts them into words/ makes them palpable, is what drew me in. Her travels/drug experiences were too 'adolescent' for me, but I loved the essays written from a more mature perspective: her grandmother, her mother's cooking, Yemenite Jews in Israel, the way she comes to terms with who she is/where she comes from.

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Anna40
Art of Leaving: A Memoir | Ayelet Tsabari
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ontheBL
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Pickpick

A memoir about leaving yet searching. The need for home and being truly one's self is a deeply rooted emotion driving Ayelet Tsabari on a journey spanning the world.

https://onthebl.org/2019/04/20/the-art-of-leaving/

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ontheBL
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I woke up to snow yesterday in Chicago. I got to do a bunch of reading on the car ride to Iowa because I'm spending the week with my parents.

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GatheringBooks
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#ANewChapter Day 30: Here are some of my #MostAnticipatedRelease2019. Lots of new books coming out this year. 😍🧚🏼‍♀️💕📚📚📚
All books perfect for our #WomenReadWomen2019.

ju.ca.no Plath&Kang💚💚💚 5y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks These look good!!! 5y
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Cinfhen
Art of Leaving: A Memoir | Ayelet Tsabari
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Thank You #NetGalley & #RandomHousePublishing for this remarkable memoir. I highlighted the crap out of this one. This collection of essays resonated with me on so many personal levels; daughter, mother, expat, Jew. Though we were born & raised oceans apart, and we lived such different lifestyles, I still felt a strong connection and familiarity amongst the pages of Ayelet‘s life. The sights, sounds, emotions were so strong, I was swept away.

Cinfhen @Billypar add this to your memoir list for 2019 ~ it‘s brilliant 5y
LauraBeth Wow - this sounds great! 5y
Billypar Ooh, will do: - thanks for the heads up! 5y
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Cinfhen I think you‘d love it as well @LauraBeth 5y
Lindy Looking forward to this. Her short story collection is outstanding: 5y
Cinfhen I‘ve just added it to my TBR and I suggested it to my bookclub this morning @Lindy Her writing is soulful 5y
Lindy @Cinfhen 😁👍 5y
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