Ariel Sabar is an award-winning former staff writer for the Baltimore Sun and the Providence (RI) Journal. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Monthly, Moment, Mother Jones magazine, and other publications. He lives with his wife and two children in Washington, D.C.
"If Ariel Sabar's My Father's Paradise were only about his father's
life, it would be a remarkable enough story about the psychic costs
of immigration. But Sabar's family history turns out to be more
than the chronicle of one man's efforts to retain something of his
homeland in new surroundings. It's also a moving story about the
near-death of an ancient language and the tiny flicker of life that
remains in it. . . . The chapters describing Yona's budding success
as a linguist are thrilling."- Washington Post Book World
--The Washington Post Book World
"A powerful story of the meaning of family and tradition inside a
little-known culture." --San Francisco Chronicle
"A sensitive exploration . . . [Sabar's grandmother] emerges as a
quiet heroine." - BookPage--BookPage
"A wonderful, enlightening journey, a voyage with the power to move
readers deeply even as it stretches across differences of culture,
family, and memory." - Christian Science Monitor--Christian Science
Monitor
"Be forewarned: you will lose sleep over this book. . . . [Sabar]
mesmerizes with the very first sentences. . . . Unlike many memoirs
flooding the book market these days, My Father's Paradise is both
unique and universal." - Roanoke (Va.) Times--The Los Angeles
Times
"Excellent...A compelling read...Told with novelistic attention to
narrative and detail, but its heart is Ariel's heart, that of a son
searching with love for the meaning of his relationship with his
father." --The Providence (RI) Journal
"Graceful and resonant . . . A personal undertaking for a son who
admits he never understood his unassuming, penny-pinching immigrant
father, a man who spent three decades obsessively cataloging the
words of his moribund mother tongue. Sabar once looked at his
father with shame, scornful of the alien who still bore scars on
his back from childhood bloodlettings. This book, he writes, is a
chance to make amends"- New York Times Sunday Book Review--New York
Times Book Review
"Remarkable...A moving story about the near-death of an ancient
language and the tiny flicker of life that remains in it." --The
Washington Post Book World
"With the novelistic skill of a Levantine storyteller . . . Sabar
explores the conflicting demands of love and tradition, the burdens
and blessings of an ancient culture encountering the 21st century.
A well-researched text falling somewhere between journalism and
memoir, sustained by Mesopotamian imagination." - Kirkus
Reviews--Kirkus Reviews
"Written with a reporter's flair for people and places . . .
Recommended." - Library Journal--Library Journal
A "remarkable new memoir" - Philadelphia Inquirer--Philadelphia
Inquirer
A "thoughtful, touching book. . . . A never-ending parade of
colorful characters . . .I could not read quickly enough as the
Sabars worked to resurrect the past." - Elle magazine, Readers'
Prize selection, October 2008--Elle Magazine
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
