by Dara Horn
First published 2011
A young boy runs through streets where gunfire erupts without warning, digging through debris and wreckage as he hunts for any word about his father serving in the military. Around him, modern Israel pulses with constant tension. A grown man tends to his aging mother, a Holocaust survivor whose failing memory fills with fresh fears of Nazi plots against her. Meanwhile, the ancient biblical red heifer appears unexpectedly amid thoroughly modern conflicts. These characters navigate a landscape where Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans collide. Arabs, Christians, and Jews find themselves trapped in webs of ethnic and religious discord. Political battles rage alongside personal struggles. Violence erupts between moments of dark humor. Religious mysticism bleeds into everyday brutality. Each story captures people caught between survival and hope in a region where distant news headlines become immediate, lived reality.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 21st-century, middle-east, jewish
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, religious-conflict
Setting: Israel, Palestine
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
208 pages · Kindle Edition · Skyhorse
Content warnings: violence