“A quiet and exquisite portrait of a group of mothers in Israel. Freedman brilliantly captures the existential and alienated state that mothers of young children inhabit. Freedman’s work is reminiscent of Rachel Cusk and Deborah Levy.” –Heather O’Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals; “In Arabic for Beginners Ariela Freedman brings to life the kaleidoscopic contradictions and painful paradoxes of life in contemporary Israel/Palestine. As insightful as it is absorbing, Arabic for Beginners brings into sharp relief a young mother’s sabbatical year in Jerusalem in the era of the Gaza war. A story of complicated friendships, marriages on the brink, and ambivalence writ large, this is a brave, intelligent and impressive literary debut.” – Elaine Kalman Naves, author of The Book of Faith; “Delicately observed and strikingly funny, Ariela Freedman’s Arabic for Beginners captures the everyday mystery behind adult friendship. This account of a Canadian family’s year in Israel is a study of tensions both national and interpersonal, and of the reasons relationships survive or fade away. Freedman’s subtle, graceful prose spans the large and the small, the wondrous and the quotidian, as it explores the question of how certain places–and certain people–come to feel like home.” – Abigail Deutsch, winner, Shattuck Prize for Criticism. – Elaine Kalman Naves, author of The Book of Faith”Delicately observed and strikingly funny, Ariela Freedman’s Arabic for Beginners captures the everyday mystery behind adult friendship. This account of a Canadian family’s year in Israel is a study of tensions both national and interpersonal, and of the reasons relationships survive or fade away. Freedman’s subtle, graceful prose spans the large and the small, the wondrous and the quotidian, as it explores the question of how certain places–and certain people–come to feel like home.” – Abigail Deutsch, winner, Shattuck Prize for Criticism