The Jerusalem File - Softcover

Stone, Joel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933372656 ISBN 13: 9781933372655

Publisher: Europa Editions, 2009

Synopsis

“Successfully grafts a classic hard-boiled detective plot line onto the complexities and dangers of life in modern Israel” (Publishers Weekly).

Levin has been living in Jerusalem for most of his adult life. Retired from the security services, he lives alone a few streets away from his ex-wife, continents away from his children. Adrift, Levin accepts a request to follow the wife of an acquaintance and discover her secret lover. Unlike the chaotic, incomprehensible suicide bombings he’s used to dealing with, at least this assignment seems like one that could possibly be solved.
As Levin watches the woman, Deborah, he begins to assess her as a potential lover might. And when the man her husband believes to be her paramour is murdered―and Deborah, in desperation, turns to Levin with her own unexpected request―his own moral universe becomes as conflicted as the struggle between Arab and Jew for the fate of the fabled city.
From the Pulitzer Prize–nominated author of A Town Called Jericho, this is both a twisting thriller and a “spare, pensive but never brooding study of obsessive love” (Kirkus Reviews).

“The Jerusalem File is styled as a neo-noir mystery story set in contemporary Jerusalem. From the first page, however, the book throws off reflections of its far deeper facets. Joel Stone uses his short and elegantly crafted thriller as the occasion for something much more ambitious―a meditation on the politics of the modern Middle East and, at the same time, the more intimate politics of the human heart . . . A page-turner.”―Los Angeles Times

About this title

About the Author

Joel Stone was born in Brooklyn. He graduated from Princeton University and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Sorbonne. His first novel, A Town Called Jericho, was published in 1992 and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He died in 2007 and is survived by his wife, the poet Dorothy Stone.

Reviews

Stone, who died in 2007, successfully grafts a classic hard-boiled detective plot line onto the complexities and dangers of life in modern Israel in his final novel. When Prof. Jacob Kaye suspects his attractive wife, Deborah, of infidelity, he hires Levin, a former Israeli security service officer turned PI, to shadow her around the streets of Jerusalem. Levin quickly confirms his client's fears. When Deborah's art professor lover is gunned down on the road to Jaffa, an apparent victim of a random Palestinian sniper attack, Levin wonders whether Kaye was behind the murder. While the gumshoe's growing attraction to the woman in the case is stock material, Stone (A Town Called Jericho) uses it to challenge his lead character's retreat from life and generally passive attitude. The book also nicely captures the inherently tenuous nature of life in the Holy City, where a door-to-door insurance salesman offers a small extra charge for terrorism coverage. (Feb.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1933372656
• ISBN 13: 9781933372655
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176