PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewIn City of a Thousand Gates, Rebecca Sacks’s ambitious first novel, the lives of a sprawling cast of characters intersect in the West Bank, where \'ideology is unfolding in violent, consequential ways.\' ... The novel digs into the enduring wound of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and offers an unflinching, unforgiving look into the harsh realities of the occupation and its impact on people’s lives ... the author’s description of the deep-seated hatred on both sides reads devastatingly true ... Sacks, an American who lived in Israel for a couple of years, demonstrates a knowledge of the region, but her characters’ actions aren’t always persuasive ... the book is peppered with well-built cliffhangers that remain unresolved ... Though these narrative uncertainties evoke the unsettling pervasiveness of menace underpinning everyday life in the region, the effect is often frustrating. But in a novel that resists offering a false sense of hope in the face of conflict, the open ends seem only fitting.
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewGundar-Goshen has said that she believes the writer’s job is to force readers to look at what they’d usually avoid. Not short on discomfiting scenes, Waking Lions offers a commentary on privilege and otherness, challenging readers to confront their own blind spots and preconceptions. The themes of visibility and invisibility, of the power dynamics between the observed and the observer, run throughout the narrative ... Trained as a clinical psychologist, Gundar-Goshen examines her characters with the same formidable gaze. Nobody emerges unscathed ... Gundar-Goshen is adept at instilling emotional depth into a thriller plot, delivering the required twists and turns along with an incisive portrayal of her characters’ guilt, shame and desire, fluidly shifting between their perspectives. Although the tension slackens midway through as the narrative becomes burdened with elaborate back stories and lengthy musings, readers will be rewarded by its exhilarating, cinematic finale. Skillfully translated by Sondra Silverston, Waking Lions is a sophisticated and darkly ambitious novel, revealing an aspect of Israeli life rarely seen in its literature.
