Sand and Steel: A Memoir of Longing and Finding Home

by Dorit Sasson

What’s it like to be lost between two worlds, only to find a home in neither? In this new memoir, Israeli-American author Dorit Sasson draws on the narrative she began in her award-winning debut Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces, detailing her journey to understanding what it means to exist between two different worlds.

When Sasson, a native New Yorker, returns to her kibbutz in Israel following the second Israeli-Lebanese war, she is confronted with the shocking reality of a country altered by an economic depression and social change. Faced with an uncertain economic future, Sasson convinces her husband to leave the country and kibbutz that have turned their backs on them and emigrate to the United States in search of a brighter future. In order to welcome the American dream of professional freedom that awaits her, she must leave the land she loved and fought for as an Israel Defense Forces soldier. But when she arrives, she finds herself more torn between two worlds than ever, changed by her time away from the United States and out of place in a country that is not all she remembered it to be.

281 pages, Paperback

Published August 3, 2021

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorit Sasson brings you in to her experience and allows you to inhabit the places she’s in and the feelings she’s having. It’s a true gift. An engaging and heartfelt read. I loved this book. Do yourself a favor and start with Accidental Soldier. It precedes this one in the series and is just as fantastic.

[Ann Howley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful, well written memoir. Dorit Sasson beautifully captures the angst of searching for home between two countries. The sharpness of her longing to find a way to belong spiritually and physically wherever she lives penetrated deep into my own heart and made me contemplate my own life journey.

[Cori Wamsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read both of Dorit Sasson's memoirs, and both books are such beautiful, inspiring reads. In Sand and Steel, Dorit takes the themes of home and community to a deep personal level that we don’t often reflect on. My heart ached and triumphed right along hers in Sand and Steel!

[Eric Steger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another triumph for Dorit Sasson! Sand and Steel is a great memoir of dislocation and relocation--physical, emotional, and spiritual.

[Eduardo A Schnadower · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and moving story. I felt touched by how she described her emotions and experiences

[Jordan Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sand and Steel: A Memoir of Longing and Finding Home by Dorit Sasson provides a window into the mind of a migrant that straddles two homes, mindsets, and cultures. “In Israel, one needs to adjust one’s expectations constantly and adapt to new situations. You have to be amenable, moldable – like sand. So unlike America, where a strong will and firm resolve are prized” she writes in her ‘Sand and Steel’ memoir. Be prepared for the conflicting emotions that face the native New Yorker after she left America in search of her roots and independence in Israel. A soldier that settles on a kibbutz after the second Israel-Lebanese war, Sand and Steel follows Sasson and her family as they courageously leave their beloved Israel, with kosher markets, street vendors and "bakeries wafting fragrant burekas and chocolate-filled croissants" in search of better prospects in the American dream. Feeling the fear and doing it anyway, Sasson traverses poignant topics wrapped up in nationhood, identity and heritage. Can she rebuild roots, a family, sense of community and belonging that she enjoyed on the kibbutz?

I appreciated Dorit Sasson’s vulnerability in Sand and Steel: A Memoir of Longing and Finding Home. She shares raw thoughts and her confusion as a mother, wife and woman searching for the best solution for her family when there is no ‘right answer’. Her ties to Israel pull her spiritual soul while the economic benefits of Pennsylvania and work for Haim, her husband, add to the emotional struggle. Is she a ‘traitor’ leaving Israel, Sasson asks herself, as her memoir see-saws us across the oceans, with hope and hardships, like finding a house, a job and routines. Her search leads Sasson to find a new seed emerging as a writer. Sand and Steel follows on from her award-winning debut: Accidental Soldier: a Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces. “Think good, and it will be good” the Yiddish adage is peppered throughout Sasson’s uplifting book. Overall, Sasson's memoir is a beautiful ‘home is where the heart is’ story. Sand and Steel reminds us of the power of home and offers an important perspective as our global community continues to mix cultures and people - all just want to belong and find a place to call home.

[Susan Jablow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lovely memoir describes the inner conflict of an American-born woman who chooses to live in Israel, and then is forced by circumstances to move back to the U.S. 18 years later. She describes the surprise she feels at feeling like a foreigner in the country of her birth, and the longing she has to return to the home of her people. With vivid detail, this engaging book portrays the day-to-day living both in Israel and Pittsburgh so that readers can imagine Sasson's life in both places and identify with her feelings of displacement.

[Katie Lembo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reverse culture shock is real! Dorit Sasson does a beautiful job at explaining this unbelievable phenomenon and making the reader relate in a way that you otherwise couldn’t. I learned a lot about Israeli living, mainly in a kibbutz, and I’m excited to see what else Sasson comes out with.

[Margalit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate that Dorit embraces her flaws and doesn’t dress up her feelings and actions in their Shabbat-best in her memoir. I was intrigued reading about her reverse-culture shock as I experienced only a small taste of that when I returned from Semester at Sea.

[Christina Haas · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Dorit's first book, Accidental Soldier, I really looked forward to her next book, Sand and Steel. Her life's question about belonging continues where she left off in Accidental Soldier.

I read this book as the Palestine and Israeli conflict had once again heated up in the Middle East. It gave me deeper insight into the Israeli culture, my own longings and made me reflect more on our spiritual natures. Sadly, I think the last chapter on the shooting at the Tree of Life is an important part of this book that needed to be captured and shared. A horrifying paradox of separateness and other that this work is now versus the connection and community that she longs for and describes in her Israeli identity.