From the first lines of SONGS FOR THE BROKENHEARTED by Ayelet Tsabari, I was captivated by this story of love and identity, the modern-day Zohara traveling back to Israel, to her homeland, to mourn the mother who never seemed to love her, was forever enamored with bleach and all the injustices that Zohara had inflicted upon her, starting with pregnancy. I ached over the long-ago forbidden love between singer and writer and the current day young woman attempting to decipher truth from the secrets she uncovers and the realities she confronts. More than this, I was entranced by a beautifully written story about a time and place I know nothing about and the restless urge to find home and family, a sense of belonging in the world. A wonderful, unforgettable story. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari was a compelling story!
This historical story is so beautifully written.
Tsabari pulled me into this story and kept me there.
This is a gripping story of family, love, and friendship.

I loved this book! Alternating between multiple perspectives and told in dual timelines (1950 and 1995) mainly set in Israel, SONGS FOR THE BROKENHEARTED tells a compelling story you won't want to put down. In 1950, Saida and her family have recently left Yemen for Israel. She meets Yaqub at an immigrant camp, and they fall in love amidst a sea of chaos and uncertainty. However, they were never supposed to fall for each other—and they certainly can't be together. Decades later, in 1995, Zohara, Saida's daughter, is now living in NYC and is largely estranged from her mother and sister, Lizzie. But when she gets a call from Lizzie telling her that their mother has passed away, she immediately books a flight to Israel with no return ticket. Soon, Zohara finds herself on an unexpected new path that will lead to shocking truths about her family, leading her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, her heritage, and even her own future.

This was such a great read! I always enjoy stories about family and books with Jewish rep, so I knew SONGS FOR THE BROKENHEARTED would be an absolute must-read. It was gorgeously written, the characters were so well-developed, and Tsabari tackles a variety of complex themes. I loved learning more about Yemeni Jews and their culture, as well as Israeli history and culture overall. Highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

SONGS FOR THE BROKENHEARTED by Ayelet Tsabari is a heart-wrenching and illuminating story of love and family. It is told in dual timelines, 1950 and 1995, mainly set in Israel. In 1950, young Yemeni immigrants, Yaqub and Saida, meet in a crowded immigrant tent camp in Rosh Ha’ayin, Israel, where thousands of Yemeni Jews have landed, searching for a better life. They fall in love, but a life together can never be. Saida is married and has a small baby boy. Yaqub is forced to move on without Saida. In 1995, Saida’s daughter, Zohara, is a graduate student in New York City and rarely keeps in touch with her mother, her sister, Lizzie, or her nephew, Yoni. But when Lizzie calls to say their mother has died, Zohara immediately heads back to Israel. While cleaning out her mother’s house, she makes some puzzling discoveries that lead her on a path to learn more about her mother and her family’s history. Shocking secrets are revealed that lead Zohara to question everything about her parents, her heritage and what she wants for her own future. I enjoyed learning about the Yemeni women’s traditions of singing and songwriting. It was obvious that the research for this book was extensive. I enjoyed this complex and emotional story and highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy.

Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari is a historical novel set in Israel and New York City. The book is set in the 1950s and 1990s and has multiple main characters. The story is told in four parts and is rich with history. The main characters tell their stories in alternating chapters as we see and live life through each of their perspectives.

When Zohara is forced to return home to Israel upon the death of her mother, many surprises are waiting for her. She rekindles some old friendships and makes new ones but is at a crossroads. Dissatisfied with her life in New York and the topic for her dissertation, she doesn’t know what to do with her life moving forward or where to turn.

While cleaning out her mother’s house, she realizes she never knew her mother, and she learns new things about her and her life. Her nephew, Yoni, who was close to his grandmother, is at a loss after her death. We learn of his beliefs and the problems facing Israelis due to government actions. When he mixes with the wrong people at a young age, we see how he has decisions to make, and not all are wise choices. We also learn about Zohara and Lillie’s mother’s life and how little they knew her. Saida broke from tradition in many ways, and she and her friend Yaqub met at the wrong place at the wrong time. But were they even really friends?

There is a depth to all the stories, of which there were many. There are essential supporting characters that add layers to the story. Vivid descriptions, words, and details are important to the locations. There are many unexpected twists and turns that are all sorted out by the end in unexpected ways. Loose ends are tied up in the past and the present especially when the past and present meet. The only thing missing was a glossary, which would have been helpful in understanding the foreign words and expressions used. It was a satisfying read and one from which I learned many things.

Songs for the Brokenhearted is a beautiful title since songs play a vital role in this historical romance that had me savoring each word and relationship. I look forward to reading more books by Ms. Tsabari.

The review is posted on NovelsAlive.

This deeply moving story sheds light on the profound struggles faced by Yemeni girls and women.

At its heart, the story centers on the emotional fallout following the death of Saida, the matriarch of the Haddad family. Her passing, along with the unspoken secrets she leaves behind, becomes pivotal as the story progresses.

Saida’s voice lingers through songs, oral history, and cultural memory, compelling her loved ones to confront the truth about themselves. Her daughter, Zohara, and her grandson, Yoni, embark on profound journeys of self-discovery, grappling with the tensions between personal, cultural, and political identity as they navigate their futures.

Themes of grief, displacement, and fractured relationships abound. The story also details the harsh realities of immigrant life. Against this backdrop, the complex political tensions of the time, particularly the conflict between Israel and Palestine during the Oslo Peace Accord, are skillfully woven into the story, adding emotional complexity.

Ultimately, this is a poignant exploration of family, love, and the enduring struggle to find one's place in the world.


Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

It is always a delight to pick up a debut novel and feel like you’ve made a wonderful discovery. This is a work of historical fiction that reads in part as a lyrical, literary narrative while at the same time provides an abundance of educational context to the history of the Jewish people that fled Yemin and their customs. Written in a dual timeline, the story begins in 1950 when the Jewish Yemenis migrated from their Arab homeland to the newly formed nation of Israel, where they lived in crowded camps under harsh conditions. It is here that we meet Yaqub, an unmarried young man who has a penchant for documenting his feelings in a journal as he sits by the river. It is at the river that he has a chance meeting with Saida who he had first seen in the camp and who is a young married woman that captures his heart with her beautiful singing. The next storyline is 1995, where we meet Zohara, the daughter of Saida who lives in New York City but is called to back to Israel upon her mother’s death. With strong themes of the mother/daughter relationship and what transpires when family truths are revealed, this story will take you on a cultural and familial journey. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

The plot was kind of complex. In the 1950's Saida and her family have left Yemen for Israel. At a camp she meets Yaqub and they fall in love but being together is not possible. In 1995 Zohara, living in NYC, goes back to Israel upon Saida's death. There is a lot her and her sister, Lizzie, didn't know about Saida and some of the secrets are unraveled during her stay to clean out her mother's house. There were words used that I had no luck finding a meaning on either Kindle or Google. All the talk of Israeli politics went over my head as I don't know much about it and it wasn't explained. Finally I just decided to skim all that. To be honest I'm not sure I really liked Zohara all that much but I got the sense she didn't feel like she belonged anywhere, not New York or Israel. When Saida was in the camp she had a young son, Rafael, who went missing. She was told that he died but there was no evidence. I wish the author had gone into that side of the story. The ending didn't really wrap things up for me.

It was very well written and the author did a good job depicting what it was like in the town and in Israel. I think in the hands of someone who is more in tune with the politics and the culture this book would be wonderful.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House for providing me with a digital copy.

What would it be like to go to the land of your dreams and feel unwelcome by people who also dreamed of coming there?

This novel is a story about a woman and her mother. It begins with a flashback in a Yemeni refugee camp in Israel. Before I opened this book, I knew literally nothing of the Yemeni Jews who left there homes to find the promised land, only to be shunted into refugee camps where many longed for home.

The love story that is at the center of the larger story is poignant, even heartbreaking, but what is so fascinating is the way it affects others literally generations down the line. And there are several generations throughout he story.

Zahara is called home to Israel because her mother has died, the mother whose secrets she never knew. Yoni, her nephew, is grieving the grandmother who raised him (though his mother, Zahara’s sister, is still alive) and he is inconsolable. Yaqub, who begins the story back in 1950, is in love with a married woman he meets when he is charmed by her singing as washes dishes in the river in the refugee camp.

Of course that woman, Saida, is the mother and grandmother who is now gone with parts of her story unknown to her family. Late in the book, when Saida’s story begins to come to light, Zohara’s sister says “How many of us ever really know our parents?” My own parents have been dead for over forty years, but it set me to thinking about what I really knew about them. What I knew, what I know, has become mythic and wouldn’t easily allow for the kind of new information Zohara needs to absorb.

The story is poignant and complex. The whole novel is a deep dive into another culture. In this day of complex questions about Israel and other cultures, I hope that many will read Tsanari’s novel. It may break your heart but it’s worth the time.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Quite beautiful though a but slow-paced. I knew very little about the subject material so that added to my interest and I appreciated the acknowledgements for the added info.

As posted to GoodReads

Thank you NetGalley, Random House and Ayelet Tsabari for the opportunity to rad an advanced copy of Songs for the Broken-hearted.
This is a beautifully written family drama about a young Yemeni woman who discovered her recently deceased mother’s secret romance. Initially, I found Zohara to be unlikeable, unhappy, spoiled young adult who needs to grow up. As the story unfolds, many family tragedies are revealed through various characters and Zohara’s behavior makes more sense. I loved how my perspective of her changes and I was rooting for her by the end. I loved her mother’s story of the immigration camp, her early marriage and the norms of her culture at the time. It was quite interesting how mother and daughter seem so different yet the phrase-We become our mothers- was in the back of my mind. Saida’s love story was so sweet and emotional that I can’t stop thinking about it.
The conflict in the Middle East also plays a big part in this story. I know I do not understand even a small portion of why the fighting continues but how tragic to live your life under strict government control because of your beliefs.
Great characters, great story -five stars! I’m looking forward to more from this author.

This rich novel, with its dual timeline, is both entertaining and informative.

In 1950, Saida, one of the many Yemeni Jews who immigrated to Israel after the establishment of the country, is in an immigrant camp where she meets a shy young man named Yaqub. They fall in love, but it’s a forbidden relationship because Saida is married and has a young son.

In 1995, Zohara, a newly divorced grad student in New York City, receives a call from her older sister Lizzie telling her that their mother Saida has died. Zohara decides to return to Israel. While cleaning out her mother’s house, she learns that there is so much she didn’t know about her mother’s life. She uncovers Saida’s secrets and learns more about her heritage, as she also tries to determine her future.

The political unrest that is so much part of the history of Israel and Palestine is central in the second timeline. The Oslo Accords giving Palestinians more self-autonomy have been signed. Yoni, Zohara’s nephew who is grieving because of Saida’s death, becomes involved in protests against Prime Minister Rabin and his government’s agreement with the PLO.

I learned so much from this book. I learned about the migration of Yemeni Jews to Israel after 1948. They thought they were going to the Promised Land but conditions when they first arrived were abysmal. They lived in tents in an overcrowded camp which smelled of “sewage and sweat and mildew and rotten garbage.” Children were placed in nurseries and separated from their mothers. And it is during this time that Yemeni children went missing: a mother might go to see her child, only to be told he/she died overnight. Since bodies were not shown and death certificates not provided, people believed the children had been taken away to be adopted by Ashkenazi Jews: “It happened in Australia to children of Aboriginal descent. It happened in Canada with the Sixties Scoop, where they forcibly removed Indigenous children from their communities and placed them for adoption. ‘It’s a method of the dominant group to reeducate a community they believe is backward and primitive.’”

I was unaware of the prejudices amongst the Jewish communities. Mizrahi Jews from North Africa and the Middle East were targets of discrimination and mistreatment from those already established in Israel who were predominantly Ashkenazi. Yemeni Jews, “as Jews from Arab lands . . . had more in common with the local Arabs than with the Ashkenazi, who thought their culture was inferior, who saw the ‘Arabness’ as a problem to be solved.” One man described the Yemeni Jews as “’a people whose primitiveness is at its peak. Their level of education borderlines complete ignorance, and worse is their inability to absorb anything intellectual. . . . What will be the face of Israel with such populations?’” Certainly the Arab Jews seem to be treated as second-class citizens.

And then of course there’s the Nakba, the violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians. Zohara mentions that her school textbooks spoke of the founding of Israel “as this magical coming together of Jews” with “little mention of the Palestinian tragedy.” Israel provided a home for “Holocaust survivors who had nowhere to go” but one of Yaqub’s friends asks, “’can we live here in peace knowing so many of the Arabs were displaced?’” Zohara thinks of Israel as “A country erected on the ruins of others, the oppression of others.”

I appreciated that the author depicts different political viewpoints. There are those in favour of the Oslo Accords and those opposed. Some see ceding any land to Palestinians as a betrayal of their “biblical birthright”; they’re the ones shouting, “’We have a total and absolute right to this place!’” Then there are others who feel the Accords don’t go far enough: “’There is no commitment by Israel to freeze settlements. They’re still building them. . . . And how come no one is talking about the Palestinian Right of Return? . . . acknowledging the tragedy would be a start . . . at the very least, we can speak about compensation.’”
As a young girl and woman, Zohara rejected her mother and her Yemeni culture. She was embarrassed by her mother, especially after she started attending an elite boarding school for gifted children in Jerusalem: “It was there that I became embarrassed by her accent . . . her Arabic name . . . her faith, her superstitions. The unfashionable flowery headscarf . . . the tang of spicy fenugreek emanating from her skin, the stains of turmeric that lingered on her hands.” One of Zohara’s friends points out that schools “’made us believe that to be Israeli, you had to reject your heritage, especially Mizrahi’” and adopt the “’idealized Ashkenazi culture.’”

After her return to Israel, Zohara comes to see her mother in a new light; she comes to understand how much she had to give up to come to a new country. Zohara thinks of the loss of Saida’s son but Saida also lost her youngest daughter in many ways. And Zohara realizes “like all Jews from Arab lands, she could never return to where she came from. With their Israeli passports, they were not even permitted to visit.”

Zohara also reconnects with her Mizrahi identity. She learns about how Yemeni women used songs to express themselves in a culture where women were illiterate and expected to be quiet. I’m so happy I discovered Ofra Haza and Gila Beshari.

In fact, I recommend listening to the Yemeni songs of these two women while reading this novel. Given current events in Israel and Gaza, this is a timely book which sheds light on the complex history of Israel. There is much to admire in this book: it’s well-written and interesting and very thought-provoking.

Songs for the Brokenhearted is a gentle, yet evocative debut novel that unfolds in two alternating narratives and timelines. The first is about young Saida and Yaqub, who fall in ill-fated love at an Israeli camp for Yemenite Jewish immigrants in 1950. The second is about Zohara Haddad, a graduate student in New York City who travels home to Israel in 1995 upon learning of her mother, Saida’s, death. As Zohara mourns, she unravels a secret life her mother led that is revealed through a collection of recorded songs on cassettes she discovers. While Zohara embarks on a quest to know more about her mother’s hidden past, she must confront her own identity crisis as an Israeli Jew who has repeatedly been othered in her greater Jewish communities.

Overall, I was impressed with how much I learned from this book. Historical fiction is at its best when readers learn about events never covered in school. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this arc.

CW: domestic violence, death of parent, kidnapped/missing child, Israel-Palestine conflict

Aa very deeply moving story. I loved the culture the customs and history.. ia definite recommend.

Thank you netgalley and publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Told in dual timelines, the first is the stories of Yaqub and Saida who are Yemeni and meet in an immigration camp in Israel in 1950. The second timeline is set in 1995 and is the story of Saida's daughter, Zohara, who has moved to the United States but returns to Israel when her mother dies. We learn more about Yaqub and Saida as the book progresses, and Zohara learns more about her mother and her story as she comes together with her family and clears out her mother's house. She has always had a distant and complicated relationship with her mother but begins to learn much more about her mother and the secrets she kept.

This is a well written and deeply moving story about a young woman who finds love in Israel's early days and her daughter, who discovers that her people and her home matter more than she realized. Also, I found the customs, history and political tidbits compelling, particularly since the region continues to be in a state of war today. However, the personal struggles are even more captivating because of the social, religious customs, and the differences between generations.

Highly recommend!

This is a story about the bonds that pull apart and pull together a mother and daughter. The dual timelines begin with Saida. In the 1950s she was a young Jewish Yemeni immigrant to Israel where she lived in a refugee camp. Although sharing a religion with other Israelis, Saida’s experiences and culture was very different.

In 1995, her daughter who has been living abroad, learns that her mother has died. When Zohara returns to Tel Aviv in 1995, she discovers secrets about her mother and family that ultimately changes her perspective on herself, her family and how she will now live. Great insight into Yemeni culture, women’s issues, and the political scene in Israel during those times.

Both character and plot driven, all the characters are well-defined as they struggle to cope with the death of this matriarch who they thought they knew and understood. Informative, well-written and moving. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for providing this title.

Songs for the Broken-Hearted is a beautiful look into women’s lives, intergenerational misunderstandings and traumas, and the hidden histories of women’s communities and their art. Above all, it’s the story of a woman processing grief over the loss of a mother she never fully knew, learning more about herself through learning about her mother’s life. Gorgeous, evocative writing and unforgettable characters make this is a can't-miss book for fall -- highly recommended.

This was a great good. It was hard at first to see 4 different characters lives and keep them understandably different until about halfway through the book when they started crossing paths with the same information. It wrapped up nicely and we got to see the struggles of family living and religions and what was culturally acceptable and not acceptable. What happens when a wife can’t give birth and the top “woman of the house” is actually the grandmother & the decision of picking a new wife for children is dominated from the grandmother/mother in law.

It was very interesting to read as I don’t have alot of knowledge with the Yemeni Jews and that culture.

This is a marvelous novel, filled with music, stories, and a deep-dive into several little-known aspects of if Israeli history.

It's 1950. Yemenite Jews have joyfully accepted the opportunity to come to Israel. A highly traditional people with clothing and practices that would seem at home in the 15th century, they are shocked to be dumped in a refugee camp with shoddy tents, meager food and skimpy (to them) donated clothes. Their children spend most of their time in communal childcare. The Israelis seem too secular, too western. It is a bitter disappointment.

Yacub hears something beautiful for the first time since leaving Yemen--a young woman singing a Yemeni song. He wants to respect her modesty, but he cannot resist returning to hear this beautiful song.

In 1995, Zohara returns to Tel Aviv following the death of her mother Saida. Zohara is at a rough spot in her life and has a grating personality that, well, grates on her Israeli family. She takes on clearing her grandmother's house and finds a box of cassette recordings of a woman singing Yemeni songs., some traditional, some she has never heard. She doesn't remember ever hearing her mother singing, so who could this be?

Put some of the great Yemeni singers on your Spotify and prepare to be astonished. This full-throated singing has been women's art for centuries, with songs passed down orally since most Yemeni women were illiterate. Women created their own songs to express the things they could never have in a rigid society where girls were often married as children.

Life in Zohara's Israel is as fraught as life in Saida's. Many Israelis are outraged at Yitzhak Rabin for signing the Oslo accords while others see it as a chance for peace. Where will the Yemenis fall, with their sense of otherness?

"Songs for the Brokenhearted" is a glorious reading experience. Don't miss it. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is so lovely in so many ways. The richness of the culture, both Israeli and Yemeni, that this story draws, the depth of the emotion, simultaneously heartbreaking and hope-filled, and keep observation of human nature and interpersonal relationships. I also love the theme of discovering facets of our family and friends that we didn’t know existed mainly because the ones closest to us don’t always show us their whole selves. This is a beautiful book that humanizes Israel and Israelis at a time when that is sorely needed. Bravo!