The Anatomy of Exile

""I have been floored by Zeeva Bukai’s novel “The Anatomy of Exile,” a story of a Palestinian and an Israeli family after 1967. It left me awash in thoughts about the power of love and the essence of home. Certainly the book gives insight into on-the-ground experience in a region it is too easy to pontificate about from afar. But I would have loved “The Anatomy of Exile” if it were set in Fiji or on the moon. Awe and joy for this marvelous novel.""—John McWhorter, The New York Times""A sprawling epic about diaspora, war, immigration and the lasting scars of intergenerational trauma; one that lands with particular power and poignance amid the latest Israel-Hamas war.""—The Forward ""Shying away from villains and heroes, the novel creates sympathy for a spectrum of individuals trapped by tribalism, land grabs, heartless government actions, and economics. A book to read right now.""—Kirkus Reviews ""The storytelling is rich with details and the author skillfully brings the characters to life with sentimentally charged dialogues. . . . Readers will be captivated by this intimate journey of an Israeli family into their self-imposed exile.""—The Times of Israel ""In her tremen­dous, trans­port­ing debut, The Anato­my of Exile, Zee­va Bukai demon­strates the unique pow­er of lit­er­a­ture to tran­scend bor­ders, exca­vate our shared human­i­ty, and per­haps even heal. . . .This is a vital explo­ration of what it means to be in exile, and how the loss of an anchor neces­si­tates a reck­on­ing with the self — a self with­out bor­ders, with­out coun­try, with­out land. Bukai writes with lyri­cal urgency and com­pas­sion­ate insight about iden­ti­ty, belong­ing, dis­pos­ses­sion, and desire, cap­tur­ing the doomed irony of home­land and the lengths to which peo­ple will go to insu­late them­selves in a false notion of safe­ty."" —Sara Lippman, Jewish Book Council ""All the more impressive when considering that The Anatomy of Exile is author Zeeva Bukai's debut as a novelist, this is an original, fascinating, deftly crafted novel.""—Midwest Book Review ""Bukai is so invested in imagining the impact of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict within the domestic confines of a romantic relationship . . . in her beautifully written, riveting debut novel.""—The Jewish Journal “A tight plot woven with complicated moral questions faced by characters willing to confront their circumstances creates a novel that’s impossible to put down.”—The New York Journal of Books ""Its characterizations nuanced and complicated, the novel reflects deep cultural mores and customs from both Palestinian and Israeli cultures. . . .How history is dealt with in the present matters in The Anatomy of Exile, a novel that lays bare human complexities with tentative, wistful hope.”—Foreword Reviews ""Zeeva Bukai writes as perceptively about romantic love and family life as she does about the wider forces that haunt it: war and exile, love across borders, the long, torturous shadow of the past. The Anatomy of Exile is a compassionate, searing and full-of-life that bears witness in important ways.""—Elizabeth Graver, author of Kantike, winner of the National Jewish Book Award “In The Anatomy of Exile Zeeva Bukai beautifully weaves one Mizrahi family’s tragic tale of love and loss and deftly illuminates the liminal space between places and languages, Arabness and Jewishness. With great empathy and profound insight, Bukai explores our attachment to place, family, and tradition and the lengths we would go to protect them, showing history repeating itself in inexplicable yet inevitable ways. The Anatomy of Exile is a remarkably assured debut—radiant, intelligent, and deeply moving.”—Ayelet Tsabari, author of The Best Place on Earth, The Art of Leaving, and Songs for the Brokenhearted, winner of the Sami Rohr prize ""In Zeeva Bukai's stunning debut, the burden of history is masterfully woven into the intimate journey of an Israeli family. With elegant prose and unflinching honesty, this novel about love, betrayal, and exile reminds us of the necessity of storytelling in troubled times.""—Amy Gottlieb, author of The Beautiful Possible ""The heartbreak of being exiled from the land of your birth is beautifully described in this wrenching novel, a deep dive into the immigrant experience, family dynamics, and the misunderstandings that needlessly divide people. The fiber of loyalty is tested until it frays--yet redemption does come and is sweet. The Anatomy of Exile, both timely and timeless, is a startlingly brave debut.""—Chris Cander, bestselling author of The Young of Other Animals ""Zeeva Bukai has written a gorgeous, soulful novel whose aching, mismatched characters limp bravely towards love even when it wounds them to the quick. But even more, she’s written a portrait of Israel as a young country and reveals the enormous and even magnetic power this sacred ground exerts on those who call it home.""—Yona Zeldis McDonough, Fiction Editor, Lilith Magazine ""Zeeva Bukai’s The Anatomy of Exile is a captivating and moving account of displacement, sacrifice, and ultimate loss. With expansive prose and deft dialogue, Bukai interrogates the ways in which a family attempts to love each other in spite of differing cultures, and how the world conspires to prevent it. But this is also a universal narrative; one that might take place anywhere and at any time. Such is the power of love, and the story that Bukai so beautifully invites us to enter into. I loved this book.""—Marcia Butler, author of Oslo, Maine, and The Skin Above My Knee  ""Propulsive and gorgeously written. With meticulous observation that misses nothing, Zeeva Bukai brings to life two worlds and a family torn between them. What is home? Who are we when the ground shifts beneath us? How can we sustain love and hope in the face of betrayal? A richly textured novel brimming with insight and compassion. I was riveted from the first page.""—Joan Leegant, author of Displaced Persons