THE WOMAN BEYOND THE SEA

As a Jewish Israeli mother and daughter try to solve the mystery of their frayed relationship, they make discoveries that unlock older family secrets, too.

When her marriage to aspiring novelist Ari comes undone, so does Eliya. The abject misery she experiences prompts her to attempt to end her own life, but she's thwarted at least in part by the efforts of Lily, her usually remote and critical mother. Eliya’s path back to mental health and a sense of belonging is, initially, taken under the guidance of gruff and plainspoken psychiatrist Dr. Kaminsky. Part of Kaminsky’s tough-love approach to healing Eliya’s fractured psyche involves unraveling the complicated and tortured relationship between her and her mother. Secretive, critical, and mercurial, Lily came of age during the emergence of the State of Israel and was raised in a convent orphanage and a boarding school. Lily’s sense of isolation and deracination became even more pronounced after a family tragedy, and Eliya is frustrated in her attempts to reach a point of conversation with her. Burdened with an almost complete lack of knowledge about her heritage and family of birth, Lily has succeeded in isolating herself almost completely from her in-laws and local community but, intriguingly, frequently seeks advice from a bishara, a Muslim fortuneteller. Yishai-Levi delivers a multilayered narrative of multiple generations suffering from loss and family destruction against the backdrops of pre–World War II Macedonia, British-managed Israel, and Yom Kippur War–era Tel Aviv. Translated from Hebrew by Kahn-Hoffmann, the novel begins with a first-person narration by Eliya before transitioning to a broader point of view, focusing in turn on the travails of other family members before a cinematic resolution to the looming family mysteries.

Yishai-Levi’s characters demand empathy as well as attention from readers.