Before We Say Goodbye

The book follows Ayat al-Akhras, a seventeen-year-old female suicide bomber that has been sent to a supermarket in Kiryat HaYovel on the even of Passover to kill as many people as possible. It also follows Haim Smadar, a security guard that notices her actions and tries to stop her, losing his life in the process but saving the lives of multiple people. The story begins at seven o'clock in the morning on the day of the attack and ends with the explosion. Despite the very short time span – seven hours – seen from the points of view of the different characters, the book tries to portray the complex reality between Israel and Palestine.[5] [6]

The Herald Scotland gave a mostly positive review for Before We Say Goodbye, writing that it was "an imaginatively constructed work" and that it had excellent atmosphere but that the "weakness of the story is the sense that Ambrosio is sometimes trying to fit the entire Israeli/Palestinian conflict into this short book, making a series of brief references to, for instance, the keys of the Nakba, with the most fleeting of context. This slightly muddles the otherwise uncluttered narrative."[7] Malta Today also praised the work, favorably comparing it to a work by J.M.G. Le Clezio.[8] Reading Time also favorably reviewed the work, writing "Young readers are likely to be affected by this unhappy story, but it is probably necessary for all of us, teenagers included, to weep for what is happening before it can be changed."[9]

It is studied as an example of human rights literature in universities in UK and Canada.[10][11]