When reporter Frank DiRaimo is assigned to the State Department in the Spring of 2000, he finds that for the first time in his career he must write about something he doesn't understand. The more he learns about the "Oslo peace process" between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the less sense it makes. But he has no idea that within two years his growing personal involvement in the conflict will change his life profoundly.
Frank, a Vietnam veteran, is of the old school. He sees no more need for journalistic "balance" than Edward R. Murrow showed for the Germans during the Blitz. His blunt and impassioned support for Israel during the terror war of 2000-2005 puts him at odds with his bosses and drives a wedge between himself and those closest to him. But he finds a new friend-and possible lover-in Lieutenant Colonel Dahlia Tamir, an Israeli army psychologist whose passion for peace prompts her to make a terrible, tragic mistake.
Cynthia Ozick says: "A brave novel will decline to neuter itself by the unworthy yet commonplace belief that the purpose of political fiction is to 'understand' hatred. Louis Marano has given us a consummately brave novel."
About the Author: Born into an Italian-American family in Buffalo, New York, Louis Marano graduated from Canisius College in 1966 and served two tours in Vietnam with the US Navy Seabees.
Marano earned an MS and an MA from SUNY-Buffalo and lived with the Ojibwa Indians of Canada from 1974 to 1979. He received a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Florida in 1981.
After two years as an assistant professor at Drake University, Marano spent twenty-two years in the news business in Washington, DC, including ten years at The Washington Post. From 2000 to 2005 he was a reporter, columnist, and feature writer for United Press International.
As a civilian contractor for the US Army in Iraq, Marano was a field anthropologist on a Human Terrain Team in 2007-2008 and in 2009 taught at the Army's counterinsurgency school outside Baghdad. He has three children and three grandchildren.
