Available on Amazon September 22, 2025.
About The Memoir
Sara started middle school with a target on her back. Her father warned her that some of her classmates were the children of Israeli mobsters that he had exposed. As a journalist for Haaretz Daily, Ran Kislev’s relentless investigations uncovered the world of organized crime, political corruption, and other forces lurking in Israel’s shadow. This frequently put his family in jeopardy, leaving a young Sara to deal with the consequences.
As an adult, Sara struggled to understand her father’s motivations and contradictions: Why provoke dangerous criminals by publishing their names? Why defend an accused Nazi collaborator? And what about his philandering and secret children? Then, on the day of Ran’s funeral, the man who had been his anonymous source introduced himself to Sara, setting her on an unexpected path.
My Father’s Shadow is Sara’s memoir of what transpired before and after she stepped through a door to mine memories she had long avoided. Now a psychologist and mother herself, she ventures into the shadows of her and her father’s past, revealing a complicated history of trauma, survival, and identity.
About the author
Author Background
Sara Aharon was born in Israel and immigrated to Canada in 1987. In addition to being a writer and a visual artist, she is a practicing psychologist with a doctorate from the University of Toronto. Sara supports individuals facing health challenges, addiction and trauma. She has been interviewed for her work on television, radio and in written media.
Sara began writing creatively in 2013 and has had articles, stories and poems published in both online literary sites and in print. She also holds certificates in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto and from Humber College.
My Father’s Shadow is Sara’s first memoir. She is currently writing a second memoir focusing on her mother—a teacher, model, journalist, translator, polyglot and a published author who was at the centre of a highly publicized scandal during Sara’s early childhood. Both memoirs weave together reflections on family, trauma, and identity with broader social and historical contexts.
Sara lives in Toronto and is the proud mother of two adult daughters.
Endorsements
“Sara Aharon’s memoir of her journalist father, a complicated man—courageous, noble, selfish, deceitful—is also a look back at an Israel that was maturing into the country it is today. Written with love, scrutiny, and incredulity, Sara works hard to understand herself, her father, and a people and country that is much misunderstood today.”
— David Bezmozgis, The Betrayers, a 2014 Giller Prize Finalist
“Sara Aharon draws on her unique training as a psychologist and trauma specialist to bring to light the fabled life of her father, Ran Kislev, the Holocaust survivor and acclaimed Haaretz journalist responsible for exposing the Israeli mafia and other aspects of Israel’s shadow. Just as her father took a deep dive into the Israeli underground, Aharon takes the reader into the depths of her father’s life: his idiosyncratic history as well as the far-reaching implications of his personal and professional choices, especially on those nearest to him.”
— Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt, author of Peacekeeper’s Daughter: A Middle East Memoir and Carrying War
“Many of us remember the devastating moment when we realized that a parent is but a unique, flawed human being. The narrative of one’s childhood must be rewritten from a new perspective, and in her memoir, My Father’s Shadow, Sara Aharon does so with grace, empathy, and brutal honesty. Charting life ‘before’ and ‘after’ that moment to understand her accomplished but controversial father, we join her in a gripping, page-turning journey of history, mystery, and transformation”.
— Alexandra Risen, bestselling author of Unearthed: Love, Acceptance, and Other Lessons from an Abandoned Garden
“Constructed of personal recollections and meticulous research, My Father’s Shadow is an important and compulsive read for anyone interested in the evolution of Israel’s identity. It deals with one woman’s quest to understand her father and to make sense of the political events that shadowed her unique and often harrowing childhood. My Father’s Shadow is not only the story of an important and courageous journalist who risked everything to bring truths to light, it is also the story of a brave and resilient daughter who seeks to make sense of the secrets that shrouded her childhood.”
— Julie Hartley, author of The Promise She Made
Credits & Copyright
The colorful image in the Endorsement section was taken by me. My photos in About The Author and in this section were taken by Virginia Wheatley, during our excellent adventure to Scotland.
My childhood photo on the About The Memoir page was taken by my mother's best friend, the wonderful photo journalist Ella Zohar-Lavi, as part of a series of photos she took as a Bat-Mitza gift.
The book cover photo was taken by a relative.
If you share any of my images and words sets it is under the condition that you credit me. Better yet, post a link to my website.
Thank you.
