Two recent reviews really moved me with their generous and attentive reading of the book and their thoughtful observations. Sharon Chisvin wrote a great review for the Winnipeg Free Press, calling the book “brutally honest,” “smart, sad and sincere,” describing the characters as “achingly human and almost flawlessly fashioned,” and quoting from segments of the book that carried a lot of meaning to me.
Then later that week, Sigal Samuel
reviewed The Best Place on Earth for The Daily Beast. I was amazed and humbled by her review, which was extremely thorough, detailed and generous. One quote especially touched me:
“By insisting on writing the stories of Mizrahim, Tsabari not only gives this marginalized community permission to be writers; she also gives them permission, simply, to be. It seems clear that, had books like this existed earlier, many would-be Mizrahi writers (including this writer) would have felt emboldened to pick up the pen at a much younger age. They might even have embraced their guttural hets and ayins, and learned to love their dark curls instead of feeling the need to straighten them.”