A young Yemeni Israeli womanlearns of her mother’s secret romance in a dramatic journey through lostfamily stories, revealing the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter in the debut novel ofan award-winning literary voice

1950. Thousands of Yemeni Jews have immigrated to the newly founded Israel in search of a better life. In an overcrowded immigrant camp in Rosh Ha’ayin, Yaqub, a shyyoung man, happens upon Saida, a beautiful girl singing by the river. In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, they fall in love. But they weren’t supposed to; Saida is marriedand has a child, and a married woman has no place befriending another man.

1995. Thirty-something Zohara, Saida’s daughter,has been livingin New York City—a city that feels much less complicated than Israel, where she grew up wishing her skin were lighter, herilliteratemother’s Yemeni music quieter, andthat the father who always favored her was alive. She hasn’t looked back since leaving home,rarely in touch with her mother or sister, Lizzie, and missing out on her nephew Yoni’s childhood. But whenLizziecalls to tell her their mother has died, she gets on a plane to Israel with no return ticket.

Soon Zohara finds herself on an unexpected path that leads to shocking truths about her family—including dangers that lurk for impressionable young men andsecrets that force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, her heritage, and her own future.