The Jerusalem File - Softcover

Stone, Joel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933372656 ISBN 13: 9781933372655

Publisher: Europa Editions, 2009

Synopsis

Jerusalem, that most historic of cities, is seething with its legacy, the futile attempt to determine the future by reenacting past injustices.

Except for that memorable period in France, Levin has been here for most of his adult life. Retired now from the security services, he lives alone a few streets away from his wife, continents away from his children. Adrift, Levin agrees to follow his friend’s wife and discover her secret lover. Unlike suicide bombings, which strike him as incomprehensible, the assignment engages him as one that can be measured and possibly 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 him with an unexpected request, his own moral universe becomes as conflicted as the struggle between Arab and Jew for the fate of the fabled city.

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.

From Publishers Weekly

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
• ISBN 10: 1933372656
• ISBN 13: 9781933372655
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 147