There Was Night and There Was Morning

A MEMOIR OF TRAUMA AND REDEMPTION | SARA SHERBILL

A searing memoir about growing up in a fiercely loving, abusive rabbinical family in which the author’s father, the charismatic head of a splinter Orthodox religious community, demands unswerving loyalty—and a commitment to guarding terrible secrets.

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Reviews

“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

 

“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

 
 

"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 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

 
 
 
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sara sherbill

I’m a writer with a focus on mental health, motherhood, and domestic violence. My work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Tablet, The Forward, Kveller, and elsewhere. Since 2009 I have also worked as an independent book editor, having begun my publishing career at Alfred A. Knopf. I currently live in Washington, D.C. with my family.