The Woman Beyond the Sea

Written by Sarit Yishai-Levi

Narrated by Gail Shalan and Tavia Gilbert

A mesmerizing novel about three generations of women who have lost each other—and the quest to weave them back into a family.

An immersive historical tale spanning the life stories of three women, The Woman Beyond the Sea traces the paths of a daughter, mother, and grandmother who lead entirely separate lives, until finally their stories and their hearts are joined together.

Eliya thinks that she’s finally found true love and passion with her charismatic and demanding husband, an aspiring novelist—until he ends their relationship in a Paris café, spurring her suicide attempt. Seeking to heal herself, Eliya is compelled to piece together the jagged shards of her life and history.

Eliya’s heart-wrenching journey leads her to a profound and unexpected love, renewed family ties, and a reconciliation with her orphaned mother, Lily. Together, the two women embark on a quest to discover the truth about themselves and Lily’s own origins…and the unknown woman who set their stories in motion one Christmas Eve.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Translator: Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann
• Release date: Mar 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781799798453

Sarit Yishai-Levi

Sarit Yishai-Levi is a renowned Israeli journalist and author. In 2016 she published her first book, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem. It immediately became a bestseller and garnered critical acclaim. The book sold more than three hundred thousand copies in Israel, was translated into ten languages, and was adapted into a TV series that won the Israeli TV award for best drama series. It also won the Publishers Association’s Gold, Platinum, and Diamond prizes; the Steimatzky Prize for bestselling book of the year in Israel; and the WIZO France Prize for best book translated into French. Yishai-Levi’s second book, The Woman Beyond the Sea, was published in 2019. It won the Publishers Association’s Gold and Platinum prizes and was adapted for television by Netflix. Yishai-Levi was born in Jerusalem to a Sephardic family that has lived in the city for eight generations. She’s been living with her family in Tel Aviv since 1970.

Reviews for The Woman Beyond the Sea

[susan0316 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'll start my review with this comment -- this was a translated book and was difficult to read in the beginning. It was overly dramatic in places and difficult to follow at times which I think was due to the translation. HOWEVER, the overall story line was fantastic and definitely worth working through the initial problems with reading it. Along with look at a totally dysfunctional mother and daughter, it's an interesting look at life in Israel.Eliya is the daughter. She is a real daddy's girl and resents her mother. She doesn't understand her mother or why her father put up with her for the years of their marriage. Issues with her parents go on the back burner after she falls in love. Her husband is a narcissistic author who is living in Paris while he writes his great novel. He expects Eliya to take care of his every need even though he often treats her poorly. He finally admits to her, at a cafe in Paris, that he is in love with someone else and she needs to leave Paris and go home. She is devastated and can't function in life at all. She's living in her parents' house and spending most of her time in bed. It's only after her attempted suicide that she realizes it's time to get help to learn how to survive in life without her husband. Though her father is worried and tries to take care of her, her mother Lily seems to have little regard for her daughter or her pain. As we get Lily's story, the reasons for her attitude toward her family become more apparent. Lily was left at an orphanage the day she was born. She was raised by the nuns in a strict non emotional setting and always wished that she knew more about her mother. When she learns that she is probably Jewish, she leaves the orphanage and tries to live life on her own. She marries and when her beloved son dies during his first year, she's devastated. She wanted to give her son all of the love and caring that she never received from her own mother and can't fathom life without her son. When Eliya is born, she basically turns her care over to her husband as she continues to mourn her son. As Eliya grows up, she has little understanding of the trials of her mother's life but she knows that she and her mother are nothing alike and that there is no common ground between them. After her suicide attempt, Eliya begins to learn more about her mother and Lily begins slowly begins to understand her daughter and they begin to attempt to develop a mother-daughter relationship. Will they be able to become a family or is it too late in their lives to make drastic changes? Can they let go of their pasts, forgive each other and go into the future together?Other than issues with the translations, this was an interesting book to read. It was interesting to see the growth in both characters as they worked to become a family and find happiness.