My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Family’s Past by Ariel Sabar comes out today in paperback and is already available at most bookstores and online booksellers.

The paperback is beautifully designed and includes an author interview and a set of lively discussion questions, making it a great pick for book clubs.

Later this month, Ariel is on the road for an 18-city tour, with stops in Los Angeles, New York, Denver, Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Long Island and elsewhere.

• To learn more about the author and book, go here.
• For a list of tour stops, please click here.

Here are some exciting highlights since the hardcover release:

Awards

My Father’s Paradise won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, a prestigious prize awarded by the leading professional association of some 900 active book critics. It also won the Rodda Book Award and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, an international award recognizing books of high literary quality that help foster global understanding.

Lists

The book made The Christian Science Monitor‘s “Best Nonfiction Books of 2008” list, received a coveted starred review in Publishers Weekly, and was a Philadelphia Inquirer staff pick, an “Indie Bound” (formerly Book Sense) pick, and an Elle magazine Readers’ Prize Selection.

Reviews

The book received strong reviews in dozens of newspapers, magazines, websites, and blogs around the world – including a magazine in the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan! The New York Times: “Graceful and resonant.” The Washington Post: “Remarkable. … A moving story … Thrilling.” The C.S. Monitor: “A wonderful, enlightening journey, a voyage with the power to move readers deeply even as it stretches across differences of culture, family, and memory.” The San Francisco Chronicle: “A powerful story of the meaning of family and tradition inside a little-known culture.” For more reviews, click here.

Community Reads

No fewer than five major Jewish communities – Philadelphia, Baltimore, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Denver, and Long Island – selected My Father’s Paradise as their annual community-wide read. In addition, scores of local book clubs read the hardcover. We hope many more do the same in paperback.

Translations

For international readers, My Father’s Paradise is now available in Hebrew (Schocken Publishing House – Tel Aviv) and Dutch (Mistral – Amsterdam). Other translations may be in the works.

We hope you’ll stay tuned for more news!