The Art of Leaving

Ayelet Tsabari was 21 years old the first time she left Tel Aviv with no plans to return. The loss of Tsabari’s 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 as though her life might go stagnant without perpetual motion. Soon the act of leaving – jobs, friends, and relationships – came 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 background and unearthed 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 home – both inherited and chosen.

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Profiles

• “Israeli writer Ayelet Tsabari on being a literal, literary wandering Jew” — The Times of Israel

Articles

• “Ayelet Tsabari: How Food Connects Us to Home” — lithub.com

Interviews

• “IN CONVERSATION: Ayelet Tsabari: Sex and the Sea” — The Humber Literary Review