Booklist Starred Review
"Penned with compassion and set amid the war-torn backdrop of Europe and the unfolding military and political drama of the postwar Middle East, this absolutely riveting cross-cultural saga will have readers eagerly turning the pages in order to reach a suitably stunning conclusion."
Historical Novels Reviews
...for anyone who ever wanted to know how Israel came into existence and why the Palestinians wish it hadn't.
Library Journal
In light of the recent attack on the World Trade Center, Sasson's story is keenly relevant, as it exposes the downward spiral of irrational hatred and the bitter seeds sown in its path
Library Journal (starred review)
Sasson (Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil) weaves a remarkable tale of three families the Jewish Gales, the Palestinian Muslim Antouns, and the German gentile Kleists whose lives intertwine in mysterious ways for more than half a century. Interned in the Warsaw Ghetto, Joseph Gale briefly meets Friedrich Kleist, an SS officer who decries the horrors he witnesses. After the war, Joseph and his wife, Ester, among the few members of their extensive families to have survived the Holocaust, settle in Israel. Jump forward in time, and Demetrius Antoun is a Palestinian doctor who hates the Israelis for murdering his friends and family. Michel Gale, son of Joseph and Ester, is an Israeli officer who hates the Arabs for trying to deny him a Jewish homeland. His sister, Jordan, and Christine Kleist, a German nurse seeking to make amends for her father's Nazi past by working in a Lebanese refugee camp, are caught in the middle. In light of the recent attack on the World Trade Center, Sasson's story is keenly relevant, as it exposes the downward spiral of irrational hatred and the bitter seeds sown in its path. A timely addition to all collections, especially where Brock and Bodie Thoene's "Zion Legacy" series is popular. (Library Journal, Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Publishers Weekly
"...Straight to the bestseller list!"
Publishers Weekly
This sweeping, overwrought and overwritten saga of the modern-day Jewish exodus is the fiction debut of the bestselling author of Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia. Opening in Paris during the summer of 1938 and closing in Jerusalem in June 1983, the historical melodrama traces two Jewish families, the Gales and the Steins, from their near extinction in 1939 during Hitler's invasion of Warsaw and the ensuing atrocities of the Holocaust. Young Joseph Gale and his wife, Ester Stein, are practically the only survivors, and in 1948, they travel to Palestine. A counterplot chronicles the displacement of an Arab family, the Antouns, from their home in Haifa by Jewish forces in the same year, resulting in their 34-year-long exile in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, ending with their deaths in the Israeli-orchestrated Shatila massacre during the Lebanese civil war in 1982. There is a shadowy subplot involving Friedrich Kleist, a former young Nazi SS officer who took part in the Nazi invasion of Poland. A second generation two Gale children, an Antoun son and a Kleist daughter find their fortunes tortuously interwoven as the novel proceeds to an unlikely, over-the-top conclusion, involving questions of mistaken parentage, coincidence and the revelation of wartime horrors. Overlooking artless writing, loyal Sasson fans will likely send this pulpy tapestry of war-torn families and bloodthirsty ethnic and religious ideologies straight to the bestseller list. 100,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; 20-city author tour. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
School Library Journal
Adult/High School-A sprawling novel of historical intrigue that spans the years from 1938 to 1983 in Europe and the Middle East. The families of Moses Stein, a devout Jew from Poland; of Benjamin Gale, a secular, assimilated Jew from France; Freidrich Kleist, a German SS officer; and George Antoun, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon become entwined through an amazing set of circumstances. Readers are introduced to the families in 1948. In Jerusalem a second son is born to Ester, daughter of Moses Stein, and Joseph Gale. The child is kidnapped. In Haifa, George and Mary Antoun, Palestinian refugees, learn that their family has been killed in an Israeli attack, and in East Berlin, Freidrich Kleist is haunted by a dream of his involvement in the death of Jews in Warsaw. The prologue gives readers tantalizing clues to the identity of Ester's child and clarifies the history of the four families and the ways in which World War II and the establishment of the state of Israel have affected them. How the fate of the families binds them in lasting relationships is described in an exciting narrative of suspense, intrigue, and romance. Each chapter is preceded by a clarifying historical account of the events, a helpful listing of the many individuals included in the story, and attractive black-and-white illustrations. Teens will find the plot involving and feel compassion for the characters, most of whom are unwilling and tragic victims of political extremes and human misunderstanding. The story ends on a note of hope and renewal.-Jackie Gropman, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
