I am almost done with this book and I recommend it highly. It is the true story of Yona Sabar, a Jewish Kurd who was born in a remote town in northern Iraq. He and his family were airlifted to Israel as part of Operation Ezra and Nehemia - the massive airlift of Iraqi Jews to Israel in 1951. These Kurdish Jews were among the world's last native speakers of Neo-Aramaic. Most of these people were also illiterate and had no written records. The language basically disappeared within a generation of their arrival in Israel. Yona's love for learning - especially language and texts - translated into his successful rise in the halls of academia. Today he is a professor at UCLA and one of the only experts on the Neo-Aramaic of his childhood. This book is so compelling, however, because it is told by Yona's son, Ariel, as he attempts to understand his identity and his father by researching the family history. The story is a glimpse into the world of the "Lost Tribes" of Israel. It is also a tale of the founding of the state of Israel and a story of how far Jews have moved in such a short time. While the Sabar epic is more extreme than most, it is our collective narrative on many levels: lost homes, lost languages, lost hopes and relationships left behind with dizzying speed but still somehow connected to us - even when we least expect it. I don't want to ruin it for anyone but "My Father's Paradise" has the "losing my religion" feel of "Foreskin's Lament" with a more interesting and fantastic plot and without the biting sarcasm.
The book has received national awards and critical acclaim. See the author's website: http://www.arielsabar.com/. Read the book and tell me what you think.
Next books in line: "Broken," a memoir about addiction and recovery (recommended by a college friend); Pat Buchanan's "Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War" (recommended by David Gold); a book on how to play bridge better; and one of my wife's detective-spy pageturners.
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