The Deserter

Returning to Israel to attend his father's wake, Lev Dubnow is shocked and deeply unsettled by what he finds. While on a trip up through the West Bank, Lev witnesses the daily currency of careless humiliation and intimidation, and soon becomes involved in a number of incidents. He is eventually so moved that he voluntarily provokes a confrontation, which has devastating and lasting consequences. From his difficult entry into Israel and his meetings with members of his family—each with a different perspective on the Arab–Israeli conflict—through his renewed appraisal of the Jerusalem he once knew and the conflicts and violence of the West Bank, this is a powerful, sensitively told narrative. Through fast-moving plot and strong characters, this book explores the complexities of both family and political tensions, paralleling the similarities between the intimate difficulties of the Dubnow family and the difficulties the Israelis and Palestinians are contending with, preventing a solution to their conflict.