My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past »

Ariel Sabar covered the 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns for the Christian Science Monitor and is a former staff writer for the Baltimore Sun and the Providence (RI) Journal. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Monthly, Mother Jones magazine, and other publications. He lives with his wife and two children in Washington, DC.

In a remote corner of the world, forgotten for nearly three thousand years, lived an enclave of Kurdish Jews so isolated that they still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Mostly illiterate, they were self-made mystics and gifted storytellers and humble peddlers who dwelt in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors in the mountains of northern Iraq. To these descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Yona Sabar was born.

Yona's son Ariel grew up in Los Angeles, where Yona had become an esteemed professor, dedicating his career to preserving his people’s traditions. Ariel wanted nothing to do with his father’s strange immigrant heritage—until he had a son of his own.

Ariel Sabar brings to life the ancient town of Zakho, discovering his family’s place in the sweeping saga of Middle-Eastern history. This powerful book is an improbable story of tolerance and hope set in what today is the very center of the world’s attention.

The Barnes & Noble Review

Yona Sabar, a professor at UCLA, is an eminent scholar of Neo-Aramaic, the heroic rescuer of a language near extinction, and the sort of mensch who prompts rapturous reviews and fierce admiration from his students. But to his son Ariel, growing up among the privileged offspring of Los Angeles's moneyed set, Yona -- a Kurdish Jew born in Zakho, Iraq, who emigrated to Israel and, ultimately, the United States -- was a source of shame and an object of ridicule, an immigrant with funny hair, a funny accent, and funny habits. In a flashy world of fast cars, rock 'n' roll, and Hollywood glitz, Yona drove a dented Chevette, cut his own hair, wore ugly discount clothing, and further mortified his son by, say, bringing his own travel shampoo bottle of Manischewitz Cream White Concord into restaurants because paying $3 for a glass of wine off the menu was "out of the question."

Introduction 1

Zakho

1 What's in a Name 9

2 An Island in a River 12

3 A Book with Shining Pages 16

4 Rotten Corn 19

5 A Surprise 25

6 The Dyer's Son 28

7 Little Thumb Girl 31

8 A Woman's Purpose 42

9 A Prayer to the Prophet 45

10 No Wasted Steps 48

11 Lost in the Land of Assyria 51

12 Speaking with Angels 57

13 Arabs Before Jews 61

14 Plus and Minus 65

15 The Mountains Are Our Only Friends 67

16 Freezing in Baghdad 72

17 Hanging 76

18 Let the Hajji Speak 80

19 Can't Help This Time 83

20 To Hell with Books 87

21 Let My People Go 93

22 A Suitable Level of Civilization 96

23 God Will Provide 102

24 Iraqi Stamps 103

Israel

25 Kissing the Ground 109

26 Where Are the Jewish Synagogues? 111

27 Herzl's Beard 117

28 Ana Kurdi 120

29 Some of the Best in Zakho 124

30 John Savage 126

31 Sleepwalking out Windows 134

32 The Brotherhood of Man 145

33 Gold 149

Aramaic

34 Lishana Deni 155

35 Cleft Sentences 159

36 It's All God's World 164

37 Hets and 'Ayins 172

38 Abandoning the Fountainhead 175

39 Exiled and Redeemed 183

40 Systematic Description of a Living Dialect 189

41 Getting Lost 192

Yale

42 Aramaic for Dirges 197

43 To a Deep Well 203

44 Missions 213

45 A Memorial Candle 218

46 Are They Kings? 220

47 Some Enchanted Place 223

Father and Son

48 Speechless 229

49 Hollywood on the Habur 241

50 Coming of the Messiah 247

51 Covenants 254

The Return

52 River Keeps Flowing 261

53 Time Travel 267

54 Habur 272

55 Kiss the Eyes of Your Sons 274

56 Turkish Delights or Jordan Almonds 278

57 Heaven Sent 283

58 Chasing Phantoms 287

59 A Disaster, God Forbid 291

60 Kind of a Problem296

61 Breakdown 298

62 "The girl, the Jew, is alive" 301

63 Convenient Truths 308

Conclusion

64 Paradise Lost 315

65 Ice-Blended Mocha 318

66 Saba's Music 321

Selected Bibliography 329