This story is about mother & daughters and the relationships between them. Eliya is a women, who has had her heart broken, smashed by her husband who she idolized. Lilly, mother to Eliya is a broken women, who can’t get over the death of her son and felt abandon by her mother after Lilly was left at a convent. Each woman, each daughter, each mother, has times in their life when bad things happened. Eliya & Lilly both suffer from bouts of depression and can’t see how similar they are to each other, instead of supporting one another, they are hurtful and ugly to each other. This is a beautifully sad story. Characters are well developed, the story flows and the supporting characters add to the storyline. I felt for these women, each has such wonderful people in their lives but couldn’t see them, couldn’t feel the love freely given to them until they reached bottom. Spoiler, it was wonderful to see how the book wraps up the saga of Eliya, Lilly and Rochel. Each made decisions that ultimately affected the next generation. I believe the lesson of this story is even when life gives you heartache, it is your decision on how to respond, yes our past can influence the decision but you still decide, am I a victim or was this an opportunity to change.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this e-ARC. All opinions are honest and my own.

This is the first book I’ve read set in Israel and I thought it was interesting to see the Jewish culture and history come together. I would like to preface, however, that my reading of this novel does not indicate support for Israel’s apartheid state against Palestinian sovereignty.

Furthermore, I felt that this story lacked in many ways outside of the setting and descriptions. The writing was beautiful, but the dialogue felt clunky and too prosaic to be realistic. There would be long chunks of dialogue that went on for paragraphs and felt more like a soliloquy than a realistic conversation.

One of my favorite parts about literature is reading how characters grow and develop. You can love characters without particularly liking them. Unfortunately, I found myself frustrated with Eliya, Lily, and Shaul the entire book. They were either self-centered, whiny, arrogant, bratty, or a doormat. Their behavior seemed unrealistic and, at times, irredeemable.

I agree with other reviewers in saying that the ending fell flat compared to the lead up to the climax. The constant rape scenes of Rachel’s past felt unnecessary, more like just a way to add to her trauma than truly drive the plot in a meaningful way.

All in all, I personally wouldn’t recommend this book to someone unless they had a horrible mother, kept falling for the worst kinds of guys, and refused to see their need for therapy.

I read The Woman Beyond the Sea in a translated version and thought the story, although very long had some great impact. Part history lesson, part mother daughter craziness in two generations and a big emphasis on healing and the strange journey it takes in so many unexpected forms.

In the beginning we are introduced to Eliya and her true love, a writer who basically turns her from very impressionable young girl into a suicidal basket case when he dumps her in Paris and takes off with his new girlfriend. Eliya freaks out, goes back home, and tries to take her life. Her mother saves her by stopping the blood flowing from her wrists. This is a pivotal act, as the two women have never been close.
This starts the healing process, as Eilya must figure out her life, get divorced and find her new path. At the same time her mother, who is difficult and very shut down, starts to have her own melt downs as she never got over the death of her first child. Even though she is deeply loved by her husband she is plagued by her lack of knowing where she came from as she was raised in a Catholic convent.

Without giving the entire story away, there is a path to healing for both women, their family and their future generations.

My only problem with the book is that is gets repetitive and could have had a finer edit. The story is compelling but get redundant at times.