Waking Lions, by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (2014)
Dr. Eitan Green is a young neurosurgeon who had been transferred to a remote hospital in the Negev because he refused to participate in a bribery scheme in his hospital in the city. While driving home one evening after a long day at the hospital, he ran over and killed an Eritrean immigrant on a lonely stretch of the desert road. He got out of his SUV to investigate, and, although the man was still alive, it was clear that the man was fatally injured. Eitan got back in his vehicle and drove home to his wife and two young sons.
The next morning, the dead man’s widow, Sirket, knocked on Eitan’s door and handed him his wallet. She told him to meet her late in the evening in a garage nearby. Thinking that she wanted money, Eitan withdrew a large sum of money to bring to their rendezvous. Sirket took the money, but she wanted so much more.
Illegal immigrants from Eritrea have been flooding into Israel and are in need of medical care. Sirket quickly saw that she could blackmail Eitan into treating these people in return for his silence. She demanded that he go to the garage each night after his daily rounds are over. In order to do this, Eitan must begin a web of lies with his wife and with his boss at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Eitan’s wife, Liat, is a police detective. She was assigned to investigate the hit-and-run. Her fellow officers, however, were disinterested in tracking down the driver, since the victim was “just” an illegal. Furthermore, they blamed the hit-and-run on young Bedouin boy, who refused to participate in his defense after he was arrested.
This is a novel of secrets. As the layers of the characters are peeled back, the reader learns of the secrets each one carries and the price of those burdens. The novel also investigates the complex relations between the Israeli, Bedouins and Eritreans.
The title of the book comes from an Eritrean proverb that says once a lion has woken up and tastes human flesh, it will never eat anything else again. As we learn more about Sirket, we realize that she has become the woken lion.
Because Eitan is a neurosurgeon, the first few pages describe medical conditions. I was struck by the description of the hit-and-run victim because my mother was also struck and killed by a car (although not a hit-and-run) and suffered a similar injury.
This is the best book I have read this year.
Read: July 21, 2020
5 Stars
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