Cover of Some Day

Some Day

On the shores of Israel's Sea of Galilee lies the city of Tiberias, a place bursting with sexuality and longing for love. The air is saturated with smells of cooking and passion. Seven-year-old Shlomi, who develops a remarkable culinary talent, has fallen for Ella, the strange girl next door with suicidal tendencies; his little brother Hilik obsessively collects words in a notebook.

Read more

In the wild, selfish but magical grown-up world that swirls around them, a mother with a poet's soul mourns the deaths of literary giants while her handsome, wayward husband cheats on her both at home and abroad.

Some Day is a gripping family saga, a sensual and emotional feast that plays out over decades. The characters find themselves caught in cycles of repetition, as if they were "rhymes in a poem, cursed with history." They become victims of inspired recipes that bring joy and calamity to the cooks and diners. Mysterious curses cause people's hair to fall out, their necks to swell and the elimination of rational thought amid capitulation to unhealthy urges.

This is an enchanting tale about tragic fates that disrupt families and break our hearts. Zarhin's hypnotic writing renders a painfully delicious vision of individual lives behind Israel's larger national story.

Audience
adult
Length
long · 451 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Some Day? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Some Day. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The People Want the Fall of the Regime : The Arab Uprisings Shares Middle East
  2. Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal Shares Middle East
  3. Life on Sandpaper
  4. The Kurdish Bike: A Novel Shares Middle East

“People who read Some Day tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Past Continuous
  2. Fields of Glory
  3. The Retrospective
  4. Life According To Lubka

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Mosaic Deceptions
  2. The Space Between Us
  3. Olives: A Violent Romance
  4. Politics and Change in the Middle East

“If it was the Middle East that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Dubai Wives
  2. Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey into the Heart of Iran
  3. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Tough Questions, Direct Answers
  4. German for Travelers: A Novel in 95 Lessons

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Words to Eat By: Five Foods and the Culinary History of the English Language
  2. Treason's Gift
  3. I Love You As Much...
  4. Over in the Hollow