The Red Balcony
A Novel
-
- £8.49
-
- £8.49
Publisher Description
Based on actual events, a gripping novel of sex, love, history and justice in the tinderbox of British Mandatory Palestine, by the acclaimed author of A Palestine Affair
"The story of what is arguably Israel’s foundational murder trial—a tale of multiple identities and loyalties." —Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of The Netanyahus
“Pleases on several levels: as an adventure tale, a star-crossed romance and a detailed period piece.” —The Wall Street Journal
It’s 1933, and Ivor Castle, Oxford-educated and Jewish, arrives in Palestine to take up a position as assistant to the defense counsel in the trial of the two men accused of murdering Haim Arlosoroff, a leader of the Jewish community in Palestine whose efforts to get Jews out of Hitler’s Germany and into Palestine may have been controversial enough to get him killed.
While preparing for the trial, Ivor, an innocent to the politics of the case, falls into bed and deeply in love with Tsiona, a free-spirited artist who happened to sketch the accused men in a Jerusalem café on the night of the murder and may be a key witness. As Ivor learns the hard way about the violence simmering just beneath the surface of British colonial rule, Jonathan Wilson dazzles with his mastery of the sun-drenched landscape and the subtleties of the warring agendas among the Jews, Arabs, and British.
And as he travels between the crime scene in Tel Aviv and the mazelike streets of Jerusalem, between the mounting mysteries surrounding this notorious case and clandestine lovemaking in Tsiona’s studio, Ivor must discover where his heart lies: whether he cares more for the law or the truth, whether he is more an Englishman or a Jew, and where and with whom he truly belongs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilson (The Hiding Room) illuminates life in Palestine under the British Mandate in this engrossing legal drama. In 1933, Ivor Castle, a well-to-do English Jew and Oxford graduate, arrives in Jerusalem to assist in the defense of two Russian Jews accused of assassinating Zionist leader Haim Arlosoroff. As Ivor helps ready the case, he receives a crash course in the convoluted relationships among the Jews, Arabs, and British who all lay claim to Palestine. At the same time, he becomes involved with two women: Tsiona Kerem, a free-spirited artist from Tel Aviv who might have proof that the two accused men are innocent, and Susannah Green, a Jewish debutante from Baltimore who is touring the Holy Land with her parents. Hanging in the balance is a controversial Zionist plan to negotiate with Hitler for the release of 50,000 German Jews to Palestine. Vivid atmosphere animates Wilson's story of expatriates, in the manner of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet and Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. With a mix of intrigue, romance, and 1930s realpolitik, the author immerses readers in Ivor's initial confusion and growing sense of moral clarity. Historical fiction fans are in for a treat.
