Book Review: Promised Land by Martin Fletcher

Set in the post-Shoah Israel and featuring the intertwined dramatic stories of two brothers born in Germany, separated by the War and reunited in Israel after, Promised Land grasped very much of the spirit and historical challenges of the young country and its people. 

Peter and Arie Nesher reunited themselves in Israel, each of them carrying the burden of their family that was murdered in concentration camps. Another drama will unite them for ever: their shared love for the Egyptian-born Tamara, a young ola hadasha from a now destitute academic family struggling hard to adjust to the harsh realities of the land of Israel.

Arie is becoming rich, taking the smart advantage of being the first to start or grasp a business opportunity, while Peter will dedicate his life and intelligence to defending the promised land on the secret front of information. The ways in which the personal histories are connected to the mainstream historical and social challenges were described with a highly literary skillfull art. The creative story is developing while taking into account the specific realities, without turning into a history lesson. The facts and characters have a determined, historically-defined context, without limiting the story and this makes the book an enjoyable reading experience for anyone who loves books sets in Israel or interested in historical novels about Israel. 

The story has many interesting turns and keeps you awake and curious until the very end, with a deeply human and balanced perspective on things and people, some of them painful, like the fact of dealing with Germany and Germans and German money after the war. 

What I personally did not fancy at all, whas the coming and going of the story of the brothers in love with the same sister. Was is because of the indecision, the soap-opera touch ? Regardless of the answer, it was not my piece of literary cake.  I also noticed a small mistake, as the brother of Tamara, Ido, was given once the same family name with her husband, although it was not clear they were changed all of them the names.

Promised Land by Martin Fletcher is a passionate reading that brilliantly covers the first 2 decades from the life of the state of Israel. Recommended to anyone that loves contemporary historical novels and a good Jewish story.

Rating: 4 stars