This book is thin. The author seems to have done some cursory research on the Arab-Israeli conflict and situations at the end of WWII and the creation of the Modern State of Israel. From that, he created a story in which he tells, rather than dramatizes, a great deal of the action.

The historical and cultural details are thin and cliche, at least in regards to the Jewish history and details.

What is best about this book are the naturalistic passages. He does create mood and landscape quite beautifully and lyrically.

His effort to create a 'nonjudgmental' view of the Jewish-Palestinian situation through the bare meeting of a Jewish young girl, Esther, and a Palestinian Arab girl, Nejma, strikes the reader as false and contrived.

I was quite disappointed in the depth and substance of the book--it is shallow and thin.