Sadness Is a White Bird, Moriel RothmanZecher
Sadness Is a White Bird, Moriel RothmanZecher
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Sadness Is a White Bird
A Novel

Author: Moriel Rothman-Zecher

Narrator: Neil Shah

Unabridged: 7 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/13/2018


Synopsis

The story begins in an Israeli military jail, where—four days after his nineteenth birthday—Jonathan stares up at the fluorescent lights of his cell, and recalls the series of events that led him there.

Two years earlier: Moving back to Israel after several years in Pennsylvania, Jonathan is ready to fight to preserve and defend the Jewish state, which his grandfather—a Salonican Jew whose community was wiped out by the Nazis—helped establish. But he is also conflicted about the possibility of having to monitor the occupied Palestinian territories, a concern that grows deeper and more urgent when he meets Nimreen and Laith—the twin daughter and son of his mother’s friend.

From that morning on, the three become inseparable: wandering the streets on weekends, piling onto buses toward new discoveries, laughing uncontrollably. They share joints on the beach, trading snippets of poems, intimate secrets, family histories, resentments, and dreams. With his draft date rapidly approaching, Jonathan wrestles with the question of what it means to be proud of your heritage and loyal to your people, while also feeling love for those outside of your own tribal family. And then that fateful day arrives, the one that lands Jonathan in prison and changes his relationship with the twins forever.

About Moriel Rothman-Zecher

Moriel Rothman-Zecher is a Jerusalem-born novelist and poet. His first novel, Sadness Is a White Bird, was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the National Jewish Book Award, the winner of the Ohioana Book Award, and longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Moriel's poetry and essays have been published in Barrelhouse, Colorado Review, the Common, the New York Times, the Paris Review's "Daily", and ZYZZYVA, and he is the recipient of the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" Honor, two MacDowell Fellowships, and Yiddishkayt's Wallis Annenberg Helix Fellowship.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Angela M on November 03, 2017

When I started to read this story about a young Israeli man who develops a close relationship with a Palestinian brother and sister, it reminded me of a book I read this year, All the Rivers . That one is about an Israeli woman and Palestinian young man who are living in New York and fall in love .......more

Goodreads review by Canadian Jen on March 10, 2018

This one was super intense; emotionally conflicting and one story I soon won't forget. The story begins with Jonathan in jail and reflecting on his great love for his friends Nimreen and Laith. Brother and sister. Jonathan is completing his final year of highschool in Israel when he meets them. He de......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on March 29, 2018

4 lyrically dark stars to Sadness Is a White Bird! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Jonathan is 19 years old and preparing to serve in the Israeli army when he befriends Palestinian twins, Laith and Nimreen. As the story begins, Jonathan is in jail, and his story is told through letters to Laith. The second person narra......more

Goodreads review by Esil on November 03, 2017

A very enthusiastic 5 stars!!! This will definitely be one of my favourite novels this year. Sadness Is a White Bird is set in Israel and starts in an jail where 19 year old Jonathan is being detained. Jonathan tells his own story in the form of a lyrical narrative told to his friend Laith. Jonathan......more

Goodreads review by Rosh on April 07, 2018

A solid satisfying, richly empathetic, deeply unsettling but gorgeous nonetheless 3.5 stars. We all have some vague distant knowledge about the 'middle east' problem but in this book, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict comes to life in with its devastating tale of friendship and tragedy. We have our pro......more