Straddling Black and White

Straddling Black and White follows the story of brave, fourteen-year-old Azmera, who takes part in the mass immigration of Ethiopian Jewry to Israel in the 1980s. Azmera embarks on the treacherous journey to join her father in Israel, leaving her pregnant mother and four younger siblings behind in war-torn Ethiopia.

Upon arrival in Israel, Azmera struggles to assimilate into a country where the language, the land, and the people are both foreign and familiar. As she begins to fulfill her dream of living in the Jewish homeland, her father develops a growing dependency on alcohol in his attempt to numb the daily humiliation he faces as a new immigrant. Azmera is confronted with shocking secrets from her parents' past, making her doubt everything she once knew. With each passing day, Azmera learns that the world she once took for granted as black and white is much more nuanced and complex than she ever could have imagined.

Straddling Black and White is a timely novel from Kim Salzman, whose experience working with Ethiopian Jewish immigrants illuminates a fresh, moving perspective on the deeply layered issues surrounding immigration, racism, and identity.
Praise for Straddling Black and White:
"Salzman's deep interest in the Ethiopian Jewish experience, and her extensive knowledge of the difficulties undergone by so many who participated in the mass aliyahs of the 1980s and 1990s, imbue the novel with a sense of reality. She has her story unfold against a background of events and experiences that ring true...Straddling Black and White is an absorbing story in itself, but it also rewards the reader by shining a light on an aspect of Israel's history that deserves to be better known and understood-the immigration of so many of the Ethiopian Jewish community." -Neville Teller, The Jerusalem Post
"Straddling Black and White takes on a tricky narrative, full of contradictions and conflicting ideas about home and belonging. This would be a tall order for anyone to deliver on; for a debut novelist, it's downright impressive. I hope this is the first of many books from Salzman, and that her work inspires other writers to tell this important, heroic, and fascinating story." -Mikhal Weiner, TCJewFolk.com