AustLit

'Anything would be better than this, Netanel Rosenberg thought. Anything at all.

Even Auschwitz.

'1946: after surviving the concentration camps, Netanel Rosenberg finds himself shipwrecked on a beach in Israel, and people are still shooting at him. This time it’s the British.

'But at least in Zion, the Jews are organized and now they’re fighting back. He joins the Jewish militia - the Haganah - and dedicates his life to carving out a homeland for himself and other refugees from the Holocaust, and hopes to find his own redemption there.

'But in the hills above Jerusalem, others are getting ready to fight for their homeland, too. Zayyad Hass’an has watched while Palestine has been sold off piecemeal by the Arab muftis and now his sons are getting ready to fight to take it back. He wonders how many more of his sons will die while the muftis get fatter and richer off the war.

'As Palestine descends into violence, some still reach out for love; Rishou Hass’an for a Jewish Haganah agent he met long ago labouring on her father’s kibbutz; Netanel Rosenberg for the girl he loved in Germany when the world was still an innocent place.

'But what will they do when the war comes?

'The Arabs want the Jews out, and the Jews are getting ready to claim Zion, no longer trusting even the British overlords to protect them. And if they cannot protect them, then they must go too.

'High on the Hill of Evil Counsel in Jerusalem, one British official holds the key to the future of Palestine. If he cannot be bought then he must be persuaded.

As two nations wrestle with their shared past, men and women on both sides are torn apart by love and loyalty. Do we follow our hearts, do we stay true to our conscience? Or do we follow our flag, even if it means killing the people we love the most?

'This is the third book in the Jerusalem series, tracing the roots of the Jewish-Arab conflict in the Middle East, from the holocaust in Nazi Germany to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. It is the story behind the scenes that you see every night on the evening news. ' (Publication summary)