The death of a mother is always complicated, especially when you lived far apart, both in location and in attitudes. This beautifully written book is about 35 year old year old Zohara, a Yemeni Israeli woman who has come home to Israel from New York City for her mother's funeral. Zohara has had some difficult years and recently divorced her husband and has become unable to finish her PHD in literature. The author uses all of the senses in this story as we can almost feel the hot winds and the sand beneath our feet, smell the colorful flowers and citrus trees outside Zohara's childhood home, taste the warm and spicy Yemini soup and hear the sad, poetic songs her mother recorded when she sang. Zohara's story alternates with the story of her mother Saida when she was young married woman with a small boy and trying to survive in a immigrant camp in 1950. the third story is about a young man named Yoni, who was quite close to his grandmother Saida even when her two daughters were not.

Zohara arrives initially dismissive of everything; her illiterate mother that sent her away to school at age 14 and seemed forever upset about her young son who died while they were in the camp, and her sister Lizzie who she never had much in common with and who raises children instead of seeking the intellectual life that Zohara prefers. Zohara's journey home brings with it finding answers to many questions about her mother and the reasons her mother acted as she did. Along the way, Zohara also discovers the beautiful songs her mother composed and sang and learned that her mother's early life was filled with heartbreak.

There is a fair amount of politics in this story and I found it interesting to learn about the history of the Yemeni people and their struggles to protect their identities in a place that was never really home. The love story of young Saida and Yaqub, a young man who met Saida as she was singing by a rock; was both sweet and sorrowful. As Zohara reconnects with old friends and family, she begins to understand her life is not so different from her mother's after all. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC to review.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advance reader copy of this book.

This beautifully conceived and crafted novel brings to life a lesser known immigrant experience: that of the Yemeni Jews who arrived in Israel in 1949 and 1950. They were seen as “other” by the dominantly Ashkenazi (European) culture, and with blatant racism their traditions were suppressed, including educating children to reject their family and religious practices. Only in the last decade have some of the Mizrahi customs been revived publicly, though discrepancies in education, income, and social status remain.
The action takes place during the summer of 1995, as the Oslo peace talks between Yitzhak Rabin’s government and the Palestine Liberation Organization are moving forward and being ratified, and Israelis are torn between the desire for peace and resentment at having land given away in the process.

At the heart of the story are the tape-recorded songs that Zohara discovers when she returns to Israel at her mother’s death. Through them Zohara learns about the songs composed and sung by Yemeni women. While the men sang in synagogue, the women had an oral tradition that reflected the private experiences and emotions of women at home and in life, not written down and rarely recorded. Zohara’s mother was unusually gifted in these.

This is a novel of missing fathers and sons, and misunderstood mothers and daughters. It brings together three storylines: There is young immigrant Yaqub in the 1950’s. Then In 1995, the focus is on 31-year-old highly educated Zohara, who is at the center of the plot and the narrator in her sections. Finally, there is Yoni, Zohara’s 17-year-old nephew, who is dealing with grief and confusion about his life and his country. All converge around the death of Saida, Yaqub’s first love, who is Zohara’s estranged mother, and Yoni’s beloved grandmother. These imagined lives are richly drawn in both their emotions and actions.

Through these characters, Tsabari has opened up a world with her depiction of the Jewish Yemenite experience in Israel, both its tragedies and its beauties. And it has a wider appeal and resonance in the literature of immigration and “otherness.”

I highly recommend it to all.

Zohara wasn’t like the other Israeli Jews. Her parents left Yemen for Israel in 1950; upon arrival in Israel they were put in camps, considered backwards and other. Their skin was darker, their faith and ways conservative.

Her father died when she was at school, and her relationship with her mother and sister strained.

Zohara was living in New York City, working on her dissertation, when her mother passed. Returning to Israel became a transformative journey into her family’s tragic past. Learning about her mother’s private life alters Zohara’s understanding of her legacy and impacts her personal trajectory.

I learned so much about the Yemeni and about Israeli history, the background to one of the most touching love stories I have read in a long time. I loved learning about the Yemeni women’s tradition of singing and songwriting and the role it played in their communal and private lives. The novel is full of wonderfully drawn, complex characters caught in the tides of history.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Zohara is a young Yemeni Jewish PhD candidate who returns to Israel when her mother passes away. Employing dual timelines to tell the story of Saida, Zohara’s mother, and Yucab, who her mother met in an immigration camp, in the late 1940s, and Zohara’s experiences growing up in an Israel who judged the Yemeni harshly. Tsabari’s novels encompasses broad swaths of history and culture, much of which I was not familiar. And in this work the author gives honor to the singing Yemeni women who often had no way to express themselves except through this tradition of song.
Very informative and an engaging story of love and cultural clashes overcome by the strength, perseverance, and courage of the Yemeni women.
Recommended for those interested in learning more of this culture.

Ayelet Tsabari packs a lot of Jewish history and Yemeni tradition in "Songs for the Brokenhearted," a 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.

I received an advance copy of the book, thanks to Netgalley. I was unfamiliar with the author and, admittedly, fairly ignorant about Israel and the migration Jews made there, especially in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Yemeni Jews??? I didn't have a clue.

I found myself repeatedly Googling words, Israel's history of peace talks with the Palestinians, Yemen's Jewish history and the name of a female Yemeni singer who apparently was really popular back in the day. I also knew nothing about the Yemeni children who disappeared from the refugee camps in Israel's early days.

"Songs for the Brokenhearted" follows two timelines: Saida, who has immigrated to the newly founded Israel from Yemen; and her daughter, Zohara, who has returned to Israel following her mother's death in 1995.

Their stories, alone, made for an interesting and well-written tale. How timely is the book's narrative about the peace talks and the deadly turn "peace" takes?

Plot summary: Zohara returns to Israel after her mother passes away and discovers.a whole life her mother had that she never knew about. That helps her deal with problems in her own ljfe and figure out a way forward.

What I liked:

The story gives an authentic feel for the Yemenite Jewish experience.. It tells a unique and interesting story that isn't well-known.. The characters are vivid and real, the plot flows well, and there's good dialogue. The revelation of her mother's story happens slowly, with some nice surprises thrown in at the end, and it's well-balanced by the subplots.

What I didn't like:

I know I'm an outlier here, but there were certain elements of this novel that didn't do it for me. The author brings politics into the story, and there were some moments where it seemed like more of a progressive treatise than a novel. I enjoy reading about varied worldviews so long as they're nuanced, and if they're in a novel, I expect them to roll off the plot. Then I feel like I'm learning something, and it makes a deep impression, as opposed to being banged over the head. The words "microagression" and "oppression" appear here, just to give a sense of what I mean.

I found the protagonist to be uninspiring. Without going into detail or giving spoilers, she seems to feel that her progressive worldview makes her enlightened, even though her behaviors show that she's anything but. A lot of the book is a rant about the racism the Yemenite Jews experienced when many of them came to Israel, but the main character chews out everyone else; ahskenazim (European Jews). anyone with right-wing views, and for sure anyone religious.

There is also a conversation about domestic abuse, where the women say that it was common in Yemen, but that older women became "queens," as if that made up for the domestic abuse. Um, no.

The bottom line: If you agree with the worldview presented here, you will probably like this book. If you don't, you may not love it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Ayelet Tsabari for an advanced copy of this book for review.

I absolutely loved everything about this novel and learned so much about Yemeni Jews in the early days of Israel. This is the perfect novel for anyone who is curious about history and culture and dares to keep an open mind in this era of divisiveness.

What an emotional book about family, identity, loss, grief, love…. I cried both sad and happy tears with these characters.

I love a good multigenerational novel, especially one that expands my knowledge of other cultures and counties and the difficulties of their lives. Top marks for this new-t0-me novel.

This book came on my radar when a friend read it, and I was completely intrigued by the description. Alternating stories of a Yemeni Jewish woman who came to Israel as a refugee in the 1950s and her adult daughter, returning to Israel in the mid-'90s when her mother dies, it addresses a lot of big issues: differences in values and cultures between parents and children, finding identity in a place you are similar to everyone else but different in a notable way, the effects of a patriarchal society, politics in the Middle East, the legacy of our ancestors. It also gave me quite an education into a side of Jewish Israeli society I wasn't aware of: the frequent discrimination against Mizrahi Jews (those who made aliyah from Arab countries) by the Ashkenazi Jews who came from Europe. I was also aware that there were/are Jews of color but admit to being completely ignorant of the culture of those who came from Yemen. So this novel -- which clearly was heavily influenced by the author's own life -- taught me a lot, which I greatly appreciate. It has expanded my understanding of the complicated situation in the region, and it's made it even clearer to me that no only are there many gray areas but that a shift in perspective might help us all see that we have more in common than we think.

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and Random House in return for an honest review. This book will be published September 10, 2024.

This wonderfully moving, engrossing dual timeline story introduced me to a part of history I knew nothing about. I knew that there had been a large influx of European Jews (known as Ashkenazi) that had emigrated to Israel after its creation as a state. But I was unaware that in the 1950s, there was also an influx of Jews from Middle Eastern countries, especially Yemen, known as Mizrahi. These Jews were considered inferior, in much the same way Blacks or Native Americans in America were. There were even numerous incidents of Mizrahi babies going missing from the immigration camps with speculation that they were rehomed with Holocaust survivors known as the Yemenite Children Affair.
One storyline follows Saida, when she, her husband and young son arrive in Israel from Yemen in 1950. She falls in love with fellow Yemini immigrant, Yaquab. Forty five years later, Saida has just died and her youngest daughter, Zohara, returns to Israel to sit shiva and help clean out her house. Zohara grew up in Israel and was one of Jews of Yemeni heritage that society attempted to raise up to Ashkenazi standards. It’s only as she’s writing her dissertation in America that she begins to realize the racism and prejudice that were in play. We also hear from Yoni, Zohara’s teenage nephew just a few months shy of being called up for military service.
Tsabari does a wonderful job of educating the reader right along with Zohara, as she learns through her mother’s friends. I also felt I got a good sense of life in Israel from both decades. There’s a lot of meat to this book. Tsabari deals with prejudice in all its variations - social strata, ethnicity, the illiterate, sexual and political. And, of course, how often these overlap. She tackles the confines of women’s lives in a conservative culture and yet how they still found ways to express themselves.
“The idea of oral poetry that was created and disseminated by a community of women fascinated me, the fluidity of it, the riffing and rewriting and borrowing, which stood against the idea of authorship as it was known and celebrated in the West.”
I truly felt transported to Israel in these two decades. The writing was lush, the characters well developed. I loved what it had to say about the parent/child relationship, how so often we don’t have a real feel for our parents’ lives.
This fulfills all my requirements for historical fiction. It taught me, it made me think, it made me feel, it was a good story.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Beautiful! The characters and the storytelling was absolutely on point. It feels like a beautiful integration of fiction and history. I feel like I learned a lot about Israeli and Yemeni history and I feel so much sadness and empathy for what they (especially the women) had to go through.

I felt the book started a little slowly, but the ending made my heart happy.

This is a really beautiful book. I learned a lot about Yemeni Jewish and they history.
Zohara is a complicated character. But I liked watching her set out to learn more about her mother, who she never really felt close to.
I loved the look at women and their past of singing and writing songs together took express themselves when they were forced not to.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House publishing for this ARC.

Wow this book was a lot to unload. I was so excited to read this story but honestly? I feel like I should’ve dnf’d it.
I love reading about stories that are set in a different time, set in a different country, that focus on a different culture. I want to learn, I want to immerse myself in all of it. My issue built when for most of the story, the fmc (Zohara), bashed her culture. She complained about everything, nitpicked at her family (her mother especially) and didn’t realize what an @$$hole she was until after her mom passed away. I feel like between the description of the book and the actual book, it all left a lot to be desired.

As far as the authors writing, I did enjoy it. She has a knack for storytelling. I just feel like this specific story fell flat for me.

Zohara is a Yemeni Israeli woman who returns home after her mother passes away. At a crossroads in her life, Zohara learns more about herself and her mother -- with whom she had a difficult relationship. Her mother Saida immigrated in 1950 but endured incredible hardships. The story alternates between Saida back then and Zahara in 1995 - a key time in Israeli history. I learned a lot.

Songs for the Brokenhearted is such a beautiful, meaningful book. Set in Israel in the 1950's and 1990's, it tells the story of a Yemeni Jewish family. It's a tale of forbidden love, loss, immigration, abandonment, and family family dynamics. I learned so much of the rich history of the Yemeni Jewish people and the history of Israel. The lead character,, Zohara,, is so complicated and fascinating. Her mother's story is both sad and joyful. It has a very satisfying ending, but I was sad to see it end. This is a lovely book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this advance reader copy. Songs for the Brokenhearted is a story told in dual timelines and opens with our main character, Zohara’s, return to Israel following her mother’s death. In the time following her return, she grapples with this loss, the feelings that her homecoming has aroused, and her questions around her mother’s identity/story, as well as her own (to name a few). This story is so rich with questions, characters, and history. I learned a great deal about the subject of Yemeni immigration following WWII through this story and appreciated the way that the author wove this into the story, demonstrating the true, lasting effects of trauma over time and through generations.

With all of this already said, I can only emphasize now how much I enjoyed this book. The beautiful writing, the characters I could not help rooting for, the propulsive plot— all of it was spectacular. I felt so entrenched in this story and felt such a strong sense of place while reading; I felt like I was really there with the characters and I think the author did a phenomenal job at propelling the plot forward, while also allowing time for Zohara to introspectively grapple with complex questions and thoughts. Although I cannot directly relate with Zohara’s or her family’s specific circumstances, the commentary and questions around grief, identity, family, etc. were universal and so well done. Additionally, the clear care shown by the author with regard to Yemeni history, Yemeni storytelling, and other historical topics was evident throughout the text and I think just added to the quality of the book.

This is such a wonderful story and a great debut novel. I am hoping to pick up the author’s memoir soon, as well, and look forward to her future works. I would definitely recommend this book to other readers and will be interested to see what others think of this one once it’s out!

Songs for the Brokenhearted takes place in the 1950s and 1995. The main character, Zohara is a Yemeni Jew who has now returned to Israel (1995) after the death of her mother, Saida. Previously she lived in Yemen and in the US when she was married (now divorced). We learn Zohara's mother's story, including the loss of a child, and the journey the family took seeking safety.
During the 1950’s chapters, the book focuses on Yaqub, a young man who falls in love with Saida while in an immigrant camp but she is married and there is no future for them. The historical issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict play a large part in Yaqub’s life and this shows us in part, some of the reasons why it's so difficult to achieve peace in that region.
Zohara and her older sister Lizzie have a very difficult relationship. Lizzie is ten years older and doesn’t understand Zohara and the life she leads, coming and going, as she pleases. While Zohara is cleaning out her mother’s house after her death, she finds out more about her mother ie her love of singing and her writing of “Women’s Songs” and about a man her mother loved while she was in a loveless marriage.
An interesting read and I learned some more about the Jewish culture and the Yemeni Jewish peoples.
Well worth the read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for my eARC.

Songs for a Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari is story about the Yemeni Israeli people that immigrated to Israel from Yemen back in 1950. It is a duel timeline between mother and daughter, 1950 and present day 1995. Saida is a young girl in 1950 that left her country of Yemen to make a new life in Israel with her husband and newly born son. At the immigration camp, she meets and falls in love with Yaqub. At that time, a married woman had no place befriending another man. Saida’s son disappears while at the camp and she eventually moves to a permanent arrangement with her husband and has 2 more daughters.

Saida’s one daughter, Zohara, is sent away to school from High School on. She never really feels part of the family and does not have a close relationship with her mother. After High School she moves to the US to continue her studies, hardly ever going back to visit. She marries but eventually divorces. When her mother dies, she travels back to Israel to help out her sister Lizzie. It is then that she discovers many secrets about her mother that she never knew before.

At that time, women didn’t have much of a voice. So they would write songs and get together to sing them. They told of their feelings and their desires. She also discovers letters and a picture that her mother had hidden. She sets out to discover who her mother really was, learns of the women’s songs, and of her mother’s one true love.

This was a lovely written story about a time in history that not much is recorded and discussed. I thank Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this pre-release. The book will be available in September 2024.

This was not a quick read, but a beautiful novel that explored a lot of themes that I found really interesting and poignant.