Books Set in the Middle East

The English Teacher, by Yiftach Reicher Atir (2013)

Read: August 1, 2022

3 Stars

Books Set in the Middle East: Israel

Homesick, by Eshkol Nevo (2008)

 

Homesick takes place in a small village somewhere between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv where we become acquainted with several of its residents.  The book with college students, Amir and Noa, young college students looking for their first apartment in the fall of 1995.  Amir is studying psychology in Tel Aviv and Noa is a photography student at the Bezalel Art College in Jerusalem, hence their need for a place in between both cities.

 

Most of the residents in the village are Jewish immigrants from Kurdistan.  Amir and Noa find a small apartment in a home inhabited by Moshe and Sima Zakian and Moshe’s parents, Avram and Gina.  Their landlords are about their same age but married young and have two small children.  They share a common wall with their landlord, and in fact, much reach through a small hole in the wall to turn on the hot water to their apartment.

 

The house across the street belongs to Reuven and Nechama Averni.  Amir and Noa mistakenly enter the Averni home when they first arrive, thinking that is their intended destination.  The Averni’s are sitting shiva for their son Gidi, who was kill fighting in Lebanon.  Nechama is unable to stop grieving for her son and neglects her younger son, Yotam, who befriends Amir.

 

The home where the Zakian’s live had formerly been owned by an Arab family prior to 1948.  Saddiq A’adana, a middle-aged Arab, has been working on a construction site nearby.  He recognized the Zakian’s house as the one he lived in as a young child.  He is determined to get into the house to look for a gold chain that was left behind when his family fled.  He tries to make conversation with Gina, but she is fearful of him.

 

In Israel, the title of the book literally means Four Houses and Longings.  This title aptly describes the characters we are introduced to.  Each has his or her own longings, some of which they keep to themselves, causing rifts with their loved ones.  I just loved the way the characters came alive.

 

I first read this book in July 2017.  I still loved it upon a 2^nd reading.

 

Read:  May 12, 2021

 

5 Stars

 

~~~~~~~~~

Homesick, by Eshkol Nevo (2008)

Homesick by Eshkol Nevo takes place in a small village somewhere between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We are introduced to the town when we meet Amir and Noa in the Fall of 1995, who are looking for their first apartment together. They find a tiny apartment in a house that before the War of Independence had belonged to an Arab family. Now the house is home to Sima and Moshe, a young couple with two small children, and Moshe's parents, who have the upstairs apartment. The family next door just lost their eldest son in the war in Lebanon. Because the parents are so distraught, they ignore their younger son, Yotam, who befriends Amir. Nearby, another family is adding on to their home. One of the Arab construction workers, Saddiq, once lived in the house now home to Sima and Moshe.

This novel is told through the voices of many characters. Thus, we experience the everyday experiences and interpersonal relationship from many points of view. This really made the characters come alive. I loved this book. 

Read: July 21, 2017

5 Stars 

Books Sent in Asia: Middle East: Israel and Lebanon

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War, by Matti Friedman (2016)

In the Israeli military language, casualties in war are called flowers, and deaths are known as oleanders.  These euphemisms are deemed to take away some of the ugliness of war.

Pumpkinflowers describes the author’s involvement in Israel’s military presence in southern Lebanon during the late 1990s.  Pumpkin was the name of the Israeli outpost in the Lebanon Security Zone.  During the period that Israel maintained these outposts to protect the communities in northern Israel from Hezbollah’s growing presence in the area.

In the late 1990s, the author was drafted into the Israeli army and sent to Outpost Pumpkin (it was never referred to as The Pumpkin).  Shortly before the author was sent to Pumpkin, two Israel helicopters, filled with young soldiers, collided on their way to Pumpkin.  There were 73 oleanders.  Israel’s support for continuing these outpost began to wane after this event.  It was about this time that Friedman arrived at Pumpkin.  Brief skirmishes continued unto 2000, when Israel withdrew from the security zone.

The soldiers could look down on the Lebanese village of Nabatieh.  In particular, they observed a small restaurant.  They would joke about how they would like to have a meal at the restaurant someday.

The First section of the book focuses on a young soldier, Avi, who was a bit of a rebel.  He was also a talented writer, who served at Pumpkin before the author’s arrival.  The Second section describes Friedman’s days at Pumpkin.

The final sections of the book describe life after Pumpkin.  Years later, Friedman traveled to Lebanon as a tourist.  After traveling throughout the country, he hired a cab to take him to the southern part of the country.  He stopped at the restaurant he had observed as a young soldier from the Pumpkin and enjoyed a meal.  He convinced his driver to take him up the hill where the outpost had been, ostensibly to take photos, but to feel the place again where he has spent 3 years in a forgotten military command.

Read:  August 6, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in Asia: the Middle East: Asia

The Waiting Room, by Leah Kaminsky (2016)

Dr. Dina Ronen is the daughter of Holocaust survivors.  As a young girl, she over heard a conversation and learned that her father had been married before and lost his wife and daughter in the Holocaust ~ that she and her mother were the replacement family.

After the War, her parents moved to Australia, where Dina grew up.  As an adult, Dina while traveling she met and married Eitan, and Israeli, and settled down in Haifa.  She believed that Haifa was a safe city in Israel and would be spared terrorist attacks.

When the novel opens it is 2001 and Dina has a six-year old son, is eight months pregnant and is beginning to question her marriage.  She is unsettled by the terror attacks that are occurring throughout the country. She wants to return to her home in Australia.

Dina’s mother, who died when Dina was 18, is always in her mind.  She “sees” her mother through a ghost whenever her mind is especially troubled. Her mother appears to her throughout the day conversing arguing and nagging her.

Possibly due to her pregnancy, the terrors of Israel are haunting her and causing her to wonder how she can protect her family. Her medical practice is an array of varied people of all religions and ages.  Her office manager, Yael, is a young woman who tries to keep Dina on schedule with her patients.

News reports that there may be an attack in Haifa. This sets Dina on edge and she can barely keep herself together while tending to her patients.  While dealing with a possible terror attack, she must also face her parent’s history and decide whether she should try to keep her marriage in tact or return to a perceived safety net of Australia.

I enjoyed the first part of this book, but the last quarter got a bit tiresome.

Read:  April 18, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the Middle East, Europe and the United States

The Black Widow, by Daniel Silva (2016)

The Black Widow follows the exploits of Gabriel Allon, Israeli spy and art restorer.  After ISIS took responsibility for an act of terrorism in Paris, which killed a friend of his, Allon is tapped to find the mastermind responsible.  The terrorist is called Saladin, like the Sultan of Egypt and Syria who faced the Crusaders in the 1100s.

Allon recruits Natalie Mizrahi, a young French-Israeli doctor.  Natalie is fluent in many languages, including Arabic.  She is transformed and trained to become a Palestinian doctor to infiltrate the ISIS community and become an ISIS recruit.  Her cover story is that she was from a Palestinian village and her fiancé was murdered by Israelis, thus she is out for revenge.  The plan is successful and she ultimately comes face-to-face to an injured Saladin.  She faces a moral dilemma to save him, or end his life and stop his continued acts of terror.

While the novel is a work of fiction, it is inspired by true acts of terrorism that have occurred throughout the world by ISIS.  In addition, the book emphasized the healing work of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.  Doctors and nurses treat and heal victims of terrorist acts as well as the terrorist themselves.

Read:

April 30, 2017

4 Stars

Books Set in the Middle East: Israel

Almost Dead, by Assaf Gavron (2006)

Read August 3, 2012

Books Set in the Middle East: Iraq

Sweet Dates in Basra, by Jessica Jiji (2010)

Sweet Dates in Basra is a story of Iraq during and after World War II. The story takes place when Jews and Muslims more or less got along. The story follows young Kathmiya, who is a young “Marsh Arab.” When she reaches the ripe old age of 13, her thoughts begin to turn to marriage. After all, that is the age most young Muslim women in her community are married.

Instead, Kathmiya is sent into the city of Basra, where she becomes a maid in a Jewish household. Each weekend, Kathmiya returns to her humble home in the marsh and begs her family to find her a husband. Even though she is sent to several matchmakers, no viable husband find his way into her life. Her mother remains very mysterious about finding her young daughter a husband, hinting that there is some long family secret that is preventing Kathmiya from procuring a husband.

One day, while working as a domestic in Basra, she meets Shafiq, a young Jewish boy. Shafiq happens to be the brother of Kathmiya’s mistress. Shafiq and Kathmiya are both immediately smitten with each other, but are worlds apart and can only briefly speak to each other.

Shafiq’s best friend is Omar, his Muslim next door neighbor. Omar and Shafiq are best of friends who consider themselves brothers because as infants, each mother had nursed each child.

The ideology of World War II touches Iraq. The Iraqi’s are opposed to the British because of the oil interests. Politics in Iraq shift, making it dangerous to be a Jew. Shafiq’s family tries to emphasize their strong ties to Iraqi nationalism. One of Shafiq’s brother is a strong anti-Zionist, whose actions emphasize his love of his country. Ironically, he is arrested and beaten for on other reason than being a Jew.

Early on in the story, Shafiq and Omar encounter a man who had killed his daughter in an “honor” killing because she had had sexual relations before her marriage. This hints at what might happen if Shafiq and Kathmiya ever got together, since Jews and Muslims, while might live next to each other, would not marry.

This novel shows how individuals can look beyond religion and tradition and live in peace. The dynamics of groups, however, work differently. Shafiq and his brothers are denied entrance to the Iraqi University merely for being Jewish. The family realizes that it must leave the country in order to survive.

Sweet Dates in Basra was based, in part, on the author’s family. It is a good novel that sheds a bit light on a period of history that is largely unknown to Westerners.


Read: June 5, 2011