This was a slog for me. I was really excited to read this book as I wanted to understand more of what it was like to live in Israel and to navigate the conflict between Jews and Palestinians. However, after the first part where there was intersection between characters, it went downhill for me. Much too much info on the sex lives that had no bearing on the story.
It took forever to get through this, although it wasn't really long. I wanted to put it down multiple times, but I thought that after a promising beginning, it was going to get better. Sadly, it didn't for me.
It just wasn't the book for me. ( )

Beautiful and painful novel about the complex dynamics of love between individuals, and hate between Jews and Arabs taking place every day in Israel. The burdensome checkpoints that Arabs face each day on their way to work in Israel is the result of the hate and mistrust on both sides.

We meet individual Jews and Arabs who live against the backdrop of ongoing terrorism in the form of bombings, shootings and stabbings.

Sacks provides a compelling voice to the Arabs' feelings of being disrespected, mistreated, abused and hated by Jews in general and by the young Israeli soldiers in particular. Any time an Arab attacks a Jew, young male Arabs are rounded up, jailed and interrogated. And many times individual Israelis retaliate against Arab terrorism with their own terrorism.

Many Israelis want peace and are willing to compromise but find the Arabs view the situation as all or nothing; they will not compromise. It definitely doesn't help that Arab cultural is excessively male-dominated, leaving Arab women with virtually few good options to live their lives, let alone create a more family-based dialogue with Israel.

Novel is well-written. I feel that Sacks painted Israeli soldiers as hateful and violent.

I could barely tolerate journalist Vera, a dysfunctional grandchild of nazis. Supposedly trying to promote the Arab viewpoint, she used both Israelis and Arabs to get stories to publish. Ultimately, she cared only about herself and her career.

Beautiful weaving of the stories of various fictional Israelis and Palestinians taking the conflict from news to heart. ( )

I liked the premise of this book which sounded a great deal like Colm McCann's "Apierogon" which I absolutely loved. This also consists of short chapters told from the viewpoint of various Palestinians and various Jews with a young German journalist thrown in.

The various names of the characters was almost overwhelming at times and some of the chapters just didn't seem that relevant - another book with what seemed like gratuitous sex thrown in. There are checkpoints, bombings, happy couples, Jewish mothers, unfeeling guards, etc. Ok, not great, but just another look at the terrible unsolvable mess in Israel (Did get a better picture of the settler issue) ( )

Rebecca Sacks debut novel is an ambitious one. She tackles the job of giving readers a glimpse of life on the West Bank of Israel for 29 people. Included are Israelis and Arabs with diverse lifestyles and problems. She does an excellent job of being able to step into the minds of the people she writes about and share their points of view. She’s able to portray what drives people—economic security, religious freedom, dignity, their children’s future and land to call their own. ( )