Here, Despite Everything: A Memoir

Born during the final years of the British Mandate and raised alongside the newly emancipated State of Israel, Saya Lyran Malkin has witnessed nearly a century of extraordinary change. In her richly textured memoir, Malkin looks back on a life shaped by family secrets, immigration, war, love, and the unexpected turns that carried her far beyond the country of her childhood.

From an unforgettable discovery that had her question her own identity, Malkin traces her family’s journey from Lithuania to pre-state Israel, where history was being made daily. She recalls a childhood during the turbulent years surrounding independence, the lingering shadow of the Holocaust, and the remarkable people who shaped her early years. When her path leads her to the United States, where she studies theater and education, she recounts transformative experiences in New York during formative moments in its cultural life, her return home with a broader understanding of herself and the world, and the embrace of marriage and motherhood.

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