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When Alan Paton published Cry, the Beloved Country in 1948, that heart-rending classic describing the seemingly hopeless racial conditions in South Africa only a year before the imposition of apartheid, I though that no better narrative, fiction or nonfiction, of the struggles between two ethnic or religious groups within a nation could be written. Now I know I was wrong. In this recently-released work, journalist and professor Sandy Tolan has entered into the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian problem through the hearts of two families, one Jewish (the Eshkenazi Landau's) and one Arab-Muslim (the al-Khairi's), whose stories are inextricably intertwined because of the accidents of history. What results is a gripping narrative, as hopeless as it is hopeful, filled with irony and passion, sadness and longing, as lives are buffeted by common events that often seem beyond not only human but also divine control.
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drbilllong has commented on (1) product.
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East
drbilllong, December 4, 2006
When Alan Paton published Cry, the Beloved Country in 1948, that heart-rending classic describing the seemingly hopeless racial conditions in South Africa only a year before the imposition of apartheid, I though that no better narrative, fiction or nonfiction, of the struggles between two ethnic or religious groups within a nation could be written. Now I know I was wrong. In this recently-released work, journalist and professor Sandy Tolan has entered into the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian problem through the hearts of two families, one Jewish (the Eshkenazi Landau's) and one Arab-Muslim (the al-Khairi's), whose stories are inextricably intertwined because of the accidents of history. What results is a gripping narrative, as hopeless as it is hopeful, filled with irony and passion, sadness and longing, as lives are buffeted by common events that often seem beyond not only human but also divine control.(15 of 25 readers found this comment helpful)