Yoav and Tali, a young Israeli couple, are at a crossroads. While conflicting offers for PhD studies in the US put their relationship to the test, Yoav is called in for army reserve service at a checkpoint near Ramallah - just as an old flame comes back into his life. Meanwhile, in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, longtime differences in professional success have driven a wedge between married couple Hadil and Hisham - she a Christian, he a Muslim.
When Hisham's brother is kidnapped by Palestinian security forces, however, the relationship takes a surprising turn. As the couples navigate their seemingly disparate lives, their worlds draw inexorably towards a life-changing collision. Former member of Israeli parliament
Prof. Yossi Yonah has written a hope-filled tragedy that deals with normal people's daily lives in a place where nothing is normal. Yonah's command of both Hebrew and Arabic language allows for a subtle and profound peek at the fascinating characters who currently call Israel and Palestine home.
Endorsements
★★★★★
Tel Aviv Ramallah is a surprising novel, considering the time and place in which it was written.
The author of Tel Aviv Ramallah dares to go against the current, to paint a different reality with his pen. This is not a utopian novel; it merely directs its attention to ordinary protagonists - an Israeli couple and a Palestinian couple - who engage in the pursuit of their banal yet personally-cherished goals: fulfilled personal relationships and rewarding family life.
Although Jewish Israeli, the author has impressive command of Arabic, and displays remarkable familiarity with the subtleties of Palestinian culture and norms. Thus, the novel is indeed an inspiring achievement in literary border-crossing. Tel Aviv Ramallah is an endearing demonstration of the intractable human drive to lead a meaningful and rewarding life despite the heavy clouds filling the sky.
Sami Michael, author, Victoria 1993; A Trumpet in the Wadi 1987
★★★
TEL AVIV RAMALLAH is a novel narrated from four different complementary perspectives, and grounded in two different social and cultural backdrops - Israel and Palestine. With a steady hand and virtuosic grasp of history, culture, and language (both Hebrew and Arabic), Yossi Yonah unfolds four lifespans in Ramallah and Tel Aviv. The trajectories of the two couples intermesh unexpectedly, attesting to the power of political reality to invade and divert the courses of people's lives. This is a powerful story of the physical and mental barriers that separate Israel and Palestine, the heavy toll that these barriers exact, and the hope - which this forceful novel defiantly suggests - to cross them.
- Judith Katzir, author. Her latest novel, Dearest Anne (2008) is available from The Feminist Press
★★★
A charming, profound, and intriguing novel. I'm already eager to read more of Yonah's novels. The craftily-narrated life stories of Yonah's protagonists, Israeli and Palestinian alike, offer hope, encouraging one to believe that this life force can eventually be used towards a peaceful solution to the conflict.
- Yossi Beilin, Israeli politician and scholar, co-chair of the Geneva Initiative
★★★
Though heart-wrenching, I love this book! The novel is written with an abiding appreciation for the human drama - the drama of life and death, love, family, friendship, jealousy, betrayal, and suffering. Yonah writes with great competence and sensitivity, rendering this powerful novel unlike any other.
- Zehava Gal-On, former chairman of Israel's Meretz party
