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"A layered tale of intrigue and betrayal."—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and Horse
Tony Malik, a half-Irish, half-Arab FBI agent based in New York, specializes in tracking money from drug and arms deals. His life takes a dramatic turn when a long-term relationship ends and his job hangs in the balance. Amid personal turmoil, Malik becomes intrigued by his Palestinian father's past. He decides to visit his ancestral homeland for his niece's wedding, accepting a seemingly simple FBI assignment along the way.
Upon arrival in the West Bank, Malik's world is upended when the Israeli police chief is murdered. Initially a suspect, Malik's investigative prowess soon earns him a place in the Israeli investigation. At the heart of the story is Malik's complex relationship with Yossi, the hardline anti-Arab Israeli police officer leading the case. They must learn to trust each other because, as they move closer to solving the case, they realize there is no one else they can trust on either side.
Lawrence Wright populates the novel with richly drawn characters: Yossi's daughter studying in Paris, Malik's niece whose wedding is shattered by violence, her peacenik fiancé with ties to Hamas, and a cast of religious leaders, corrupt cops, and militants on both sides. Through these intersecting lives, Wright weaves an intricate tapestry that culminates in the devastating Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
More than a thriller, Wright's novel explores the complex history between Israel and Palestine, revealing the tragic human scale of this long-standing conflict and offering a nuanced perspective on a tragedy that continues to shape the region and the world.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 11, 2025 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593537848
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593537848
- File size: 1894 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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October 1, 2024
Pulitzer Prize winner Wright (The End of October) offers a thriller featuring FBI agent Tony Malik, born of Irish and Arab parents. When he travels to Palestine for a family wedding, he is caught in the fraught investigation around the murder of an Israeli police chief; soon, events spin toward Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2024 Library Journal
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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March 1, 2025
In Wright's latest topical novel, the murder of an Israeli police chief in a West Bank settlement inflames tensions, ultimately leading to the October 7 massacre. When FBI agent Tony Malik, whose father is Palestinian, travels to the historic city of Hebron to attend a cousin's wedding, he's still recovering from a bomb explosion that left him with erratic memory loss. His sense of disorientation deepens when, drawn into the investigation of the chief's murder--after having been falsely named a suspect--he encounters extreme forms of violence, hatred, and inhumanity on both sides of the conflict. Teamed with hardline Israeli cop Yossi Ben-Gal, he soon recognizes that anyone could have killed the police chief, whose pacifist leanings may have cost him his life. Asked whether he's worried about dangerous activities in Gaza, Yossi dismisses them as "some virus that pops up every few years, sometimes deadly, sometimes you hardly notice, like the difference between a cold and the flu." No one, including Malik, is safe in this hostile environment, where religious leaders financed by drug money call for the destruction of the enemy and a "human scale" determines the value of a life, as in one abducted Israeli being worth 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Lacking the deep literary expression of a Robert Stone, Wright falls short of capturing "the implacable darkness of human nature" (though he comes close in having the slain chief's missing head become a pawn in a deadly game), and he frequently slips into didacticism. But the book, based on the author's years of reporting in the region, is fully believable--and full of suspense. "What nobody outside understands is the real enemy is not each other," says one of many ill-fated characters. "It is peace we hate." A timely and gripping novel that works best as a political thriller.COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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