Items related to The offer
A good description of the book in this review:"In this sweeping, tautly written dynastic novel, we follow the entwined destinies of two families - one Arab, one Jewish ... behind the complex passion-filled drama in which historic figures mingle with vivid fictional characters, lies the unresolved tragedy of Arab-Israeli relations." Publisher's Weekly, June, 1981THE OFFER
A novel by Jesse Lasky, Jr. and Pat Silver (Pat Silver-Lasky)
First published by Doubleday & Co, Inc. Garden City N.Y. 1981
SYNOPSIS
Reviewers have called The Offer the Roots of the birth of Israel. 'The sweeping, tautly written dynastic novel is timeless as history, yet current as today's headlines. The story of a moderate Arab and a moderate Jew, Mohamed Hammadi and Judah Nouari - who try to remain friends and partners while their families tangle in complex historical hostilities - unfolds through the high-conflict lives and entwined destinies of two generations of the families.'
For a century the Hammadis and the Nouaris shared a partnership, a friendship, and a homeland. Overnight, they shared only hatred when they clash over the fate of Palestine and Israel. The growth of Zionism, Nazism, betrayals, seductions, madness, and modern history keeping the compelling plot moving at a fast clip and offers a large supporting cast of friends and enemies who range from the decorative and good to the troublesome and evil.
It begins in 1843, when an Arab boy leading a donkey meets two Jewish boys dragging a cart along the dusty road to Jerusalem. A partnership is born which grows as generation succeeds generation, to a word-wide banking empire. The empire reaches its zenith under Mohamed Hammadi and Judah Nouari. Through two world wars and the liberation of Palestine from the Turks, they lead their enterprise and family friendship into what seems an unshakeable alliance. But a dream is growing which, when it takes on reality, will cause an irreparable rift between the families and between Arabs and Jews generally: the dream of the Promised Land.
Through the complex passion-filled drama, historic figures mingle with vivid fictional characters in the unresolved tragedy of Arab-Israeli relations. The vividly emotional and factual story is backed by multi-perceptions of both sides.
Judah Nouari and Mohamed Hammadi are in Paris in 1895, young men training as bankers so they can carry on their families' Jerusalem-based trading empire. Judah however is soon caught up in Zionism, thanks to his infatuation with earthy activist, Zosia - whose violent death becomes his long-time inspiration. (Only decades later will Judah learn that Zosia, secretly married, was just using him.) And while Judah weds a Zosia-substitute (her cousin Ruth) Mohamed marries chic Jacqueline, who turns out to be a manic-depressive nymphomaniac. (Her first child is actually fathered by a blackmailing pimp.)
But even more serious problems arise at home as World War I arrives; Mohamed's volatile cousins Yassir and Tariq are arrested for anti-Turkish terrorism; pragmatic Mohamed sells arms to the Turks while Judah joins Ben Gurion's Zion Mule Corps to fight along side the British;
And during the Post War Mandate, with the Turks no longer the common enemy, Arab-Jew tensions mount; Judah's brother Ben is an early 'Kabbutznik' (no Arabs allowed). Mohamed's cousins lead Al Fatah attacks on Jewish settlements. Ben is killed by the British, (their spy is Judah's mistress) while smuggling in illegal immigrants. So finally even Judah (who loses an arm in an Al Fatah bombing) joins the Hagana. But after World War II - during which those Al Fatah cousins help to rescue Judah's estranged wife and son from a death camp - he is horrified by Irgun terrorism, and has a stroke when he learns that his son (and Mohamed's daughter) are involved in the King David Hotel bombing.
A novel by Jesse Lasky, Jr. and Pat Silver (Pat Silver-Lasky)
First published by Doubleday & Co, Inc. Garden City N.Y. 1981
SYNOPSIS
Reviewers have called The Offer the Roots of the birth of Israel. 'The sweeping, tautly written dynastic novel is timeless as history, yet current as today's headlines. The story of a moderate Arab and a moderate Jew, Mohamed Hammadi and Judah Nouari - who try to remain friends and partners while their families tangle in complex historical hostilities - unfolds through the high-conflict lives and entwined destinies of two generations of the families.'
For a century the Hammadis and the Nouaris shared a partnership, a friendship, and a homeland. Overnight, they shared only hatred when they clash over the fate of Palestine and Israel. The growth of Zionism, Nazism, betrayals, seductions, madness, and modern history keeping the compelling plot moving at a fast clip and offers a large supporting cast of friends and enemies who range from the decorative and good to the troublesome and evil.
It begins in 1843, when an Arab boy leading a donkey meets two Jewish boys dragging a cart along the dusty road to Jerusalem. A partnership is born which grows as generation succeeds generation, to a word-wide banking empire. The empire reaches its zenith under Mohamed Hammadi and Judah Nouari. Through two world wars and the liberation of Palestine from the Turks, they lead their enterprise and family friendship into what seems an unshakeable alliance. But a dream is growing which, when it takes on reality, will cause an irreparable rift between the families and between Arabs and Jews generally: the dream of the Promised Land.
Through the complex passion-filled drama, historic figures mingle with vivid fictional characters in the unresolved tragedy of Arab-Israeli relations. The vividly emotional and factual story is backed by multi-perceptions of both sides.
Judah Nouari and Mohamed Hammadi are in Paris in 1895, young men training as bankers so they can carry on their families' Jerusalem-based trading empire. Judah however is soon caught up in Zionism, thanks to his infatuation with earthy activist, Zosia - whose violent death becomes his long-time inspiration. (Only decades later will Judah learn that Zosia, secretly married, was just using him.) And while Judah weds a Zosia-substitute (her cousin Ruth) Mohamed marries chic Jacqueline, who turns out to be a manic-depressive nymphomaniac. (Her first child is actually fathered by a blackmailing pimp.)
But even more serious problems arise at home as World War I arrives; Mohamed's volatile cousins Yassir and Tariq are arrested for anti-Turkish terrorism; pragmatic Mohamed sells arms to the Turks while Judah joins Ben Gurion's Zion Mule Corps to fight along side the British;
And during the Post War Mandate, with the Turks no longer the common enemy, Arab-Jew tensions mount; Judah's brother Ben is an early 'Kabbutznik' (no Arabs allowed). Mohamed's cousins lead Al Fatah attacks on Jewish settlements. Ben is killed by the British, (their spy is Judah's mistress) while smuggling in illegal immigrants. So finally even Judah (who loses an arm in an Al Fatah bombing) joins the Hagana. But after World War II - during which those Al Fatah cousins help to rescue Judah's estranged wife and son from a death camp - he is horrified by Irgun terrorism, and has a stroke when he learns that his son (and Mohamed's daughter) are involved in the King David Hotel bombing.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From the Author:
Jesse Lasky, Jr. and I wrote The Offer in 1980 and it was published by Doubleday. I have been asked many times since then where someone could get a copy. Sadly, it is now out of print. I intend to bring out a new edition in 2013. Since it is such a long book, I'm going to bring it out in 2 parts. The Offer, Part 1 and Part 2. It had really wonderful reviews . I have put a few lines above. Hope you will keep your eye out for it. Meanwhile I'm bring out a completely different work for this Christmas with Peter Betts. It's a humorous look at conmen through the ages, called $cam$ $cheme$ $cumbag$. It should keep the family smiling around the fire after a good dinner. It will be available in time for Christmas shopping. Do look out for it on Amazon, Kindle and most friendly ebooks Hope some of you have dipped into my latest thriller, Ride The Tiger. It's available now. If you like it, a review on Amazon is always welcome. look out for my blog on my updated website, Pat Silver-Lasky@cox.net where I have posted some short, short stories.
From the Inside Flap:
THE OFFER INSIDE FLAP
Gazing down at Judah Nouari's battered body where it lay in the hospital bed, Mohamed Hammadi thought back to the days when the two of them had shared an office at the Liebermann Bank, in Paris. They had been young then, just apprentices learning the ropes of the great enterprise they would one day direct. And in the intervening years they had grown to know each other so well that it was as if they had been brothers instead of partners. When Mohamed could no longer stand the strain of his marriage to the beautiful but disturbed Jacqueline, it was to Judah that he always turned; and when the love of Judah's life died in the explosion of a terrorist bomb, it was to Mohamed that he poured out his unhappy heart. Arab and Jew had worked together, planned together, built together to establish the firm of Hammadi-Nouari. How sad, thought Mohamed, that the work of generations had been destroyed by an idea.
The Company's emblem had been the donkey and cart since that day in 1843 when Musa Hammadi, with his truculent donkey, met Abraham Nouari and his brother Jacob dragging their cart along the dusty road to Jerusalem, and a partnership was born. As generation succeeded generation, that emblem came to gleam of polished brass plaques in a dozen great cities. The joint enterprise flourished into a banking empire spanning three continents.
It was a thin line the two families had to tread between the powerful empires that governed their destiny: the brutal Ottoman pashas and their German allies, the practical, hard-headed French. The quietly conspiring English . . . Picking their way through the welter of intrigue, the Hammadi and Nouari families came to respect and trust each other, setting their friendship and their association above all else. It seemed an unshakable alliance . . . but a dream was growing that would strike at the very foundation of their bond. A dream to some and a nightmare to others: Zionism.
Gazing down at Judah Nouari's battered body where it lay in the hospital bed, Mohamed Hammadi thought back to the days when the two of them had shared an office at the Liebermann Bank, in Paris. They had been young then, just apprentices learning the ropes of the great enterprise they would one day direct. And in the intervening years they had grown to know each other so well that it was as if they had been brothers instead of partners. When Mohamed could no longer stand the strain of his marriage to the beautiful but disturbed Jacqueline, it was to Judah that he always turned; and when the love of Judah's life died in the explosion of a terrorist bomb, it was to Mohamed that he poured out his unhappy heart. Arab and Jew had worked together, planned together, built together to establish the firm of Hammadi-Nouari. How sad, thought Mohamed, that the work of generations had been destroyed by an idea.
The Company's emblem had been the donkey and cart since that day in 1843 when Musa Hammadi, with his truculent donkey, met Abraham Nouari and his brother Jacob dragging their cart along the dusty road to Jerusalem, and a partnership was born. As generation succeeded generation, that emblem came to gleam of polished brass plaques in a dozen great cities. The joint enterprise flourished into a banking empire spanning three continents.
It was a thin line the two families had to tread between the powerful empires that governed their destiny: the brutal Ottoman pashas and their German allies, the practical, hard-headed French. The quietly conspiring English . . . Picking their way through the welter of intrigue, the Hammadi and Nouari families came to respect and trust each other, setting their friendship and their association above all else. It seemed an unshakable alliance . . . but a dream was growing that would strike at the very foundation of their bond. A dream to some and a nightmare to others: Zionism.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherNew York, NY, U. S. A. : Doubleday Publishing, 1981
- Publication date1981
- ISBN 10 0385157673
- ISBN 13 9780385157674
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages656
- Rating
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The Offer
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New York, NY, U. S. A. : Doubleday Publishing, 1981
(1981)
ISBN 10: 0385157673
ISBN 13: 9780385157674
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Hardcover
First Edition
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. Stated First Edition. 9.3 X 6.3 X 2.2 inches. Seller Inventory # 1017431
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The Offer
Published by
Doubleday
(1981)
ISBN 10: 0385157673
ISBN 13: 9780385157674
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Quantity: 1
Seller:
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good-. First Edition. Stated first edition hardcover inscribed to title page by Lasky and Silver. Trace soil/shelfwear. Tight and square. The DJ in mylar has tears to points, rubbing, soil, sunned spine. ; Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall; Signed by Author. Seller Inventory # 33962
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