There Was Night and There Was Morning

"""Sherbill masterfully explores the fragile bonds of family and faith with courage and clarity. . . . She illuminates how darkness can coexist with compassion, how a father's shadow cannot extinguish a daughter's light."" --Alyson Richman, internationally bestselling author of The Thread Collectors (with Shaunna J. Edwards) and The Lost Wife ""Revelatory and luminous . . . a spellbinding saga of domestic violence that shows us, with great precision and deep compassion, the lifelong aftershocks on an entire family. I couldn't put this book down, and now I can't stop thinking about it."" --Stephen Mills, author of Chosen: A Memoir of Stolen Boyhood (2022 Jewish Book Council memoir winner) ""This is an extraordinary piece of work. Powerful, beautiful, original. I am in awe of the command of voice. . . . A triumph.""--Mary Gordon, author of Pearl: A Novel ""Can prayers, if not well-kept, grow holes and spoil? What happens when rituals that keep us safe also betray us? After all our prayers have forgotten us, how can we learn to pray again? Sara Sherbill's There Was Night and There Was Morning is a spellbinding memoir that lays what is holy bare.""--Sabrina Orah Mark, author of Happily ""An unflinching, deeply affecting account of family, faith and abuse. This book brings us close to the devastating ways in which a family can come apart and, at the same time, is a testament to the redemptive power of telling your own story.""--Tova Mirvis, author of The Book of Separation ""Fiercely brave, eloquent, and brilliant in its evocation of a family teetering on the brink of catastrophe shrouded beneath religious devotion and the myth of perfection, There Was Night and There Was Morning is nothing short of a tour de force. Sara Sherbill has expertly crafted a harrowing story of truth and transcendence that will stay with me forever.""--Elissa Altman, author of Motherland ""Searing and vulnerable, this heartbreaking story reads like a pre-war memoir of Jewish life, its seasons and rituals and sensations. But at its center lies a dark and timely undercurrent, which coincides with our post-#MeToo moment. As the history of a father and rabbi's hidden life of addiction and abuse emerges, Sara's courage, honesty, and refusal to compromise her integrity as a daughter, mother, and writer, will leave you awestruck.""--Ariel Burger, author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom ""This book took my breath away. Sara Sherbill's voice is clear, intimate, and fearless. There Was Night and There Was Morning is a brutal exploration of abuse and its aftermath, but it is also the story of a tremendous and evolving family, gorgeously written. I am so glad I read it and I won't forget it.""--Hanna Halperin, author of I Could Live Here Forever"