Tony Malik, a half-Irish, half-Arab FBI agent based in New York, spe­cial­izes in track­ing mon­ey from drug and arms deals. His life takes a dra­mat­ic turn when a long-term rela­tion­ship ends and his job hangs in the bal­ance. Amid per­son­al tur­moil, Malik becomes intrigued by his Pales­tin­ian father’s past. He decides to vis­it his ances­tral home­land for his niece’s wed­ding, accept­ing a seem­ing­ly sim­ple FBI assign­ment along the way. Upon arrival in the West Bank, Malik’s world is upend­ed when the Israeli police chief is mur­dered. Ini­tial­ly a sus­pect, Malik’s inves­tiga­tive prowess soon earns him a place in the Israeli inves­ti­ga­tion. At the heart of the sto­ry is Malik’s com­plex rela­tion­ship with Yos­si, the hard­line anti-Arab Israeli police offi­cer lead­ing the case. They must learn to trust each oth­er because, as they move clos­er to solv­ing the case, they real­ize there is no one else they can trust on either side. Lawrence Wright pop­u­lates the nov­el with rich­ly drawn char­ac­ters: Yossi’s daugh­ter study­ing in Paris, Malik’s niece whose wed­ding is shat­tered by vio­lence, her peacenik fiancé with ties to Hamas, and a cast of reli­gious lead­ers, cor­rupt cops, and mil­i­tants on both sides. Through these inter­sect­ing lives, Wright weaves an intri­cate tapes­try that cul­mi­nates in the dev­as­tat­ing Hamas attack on Israel on Octo­ber 7, 2023. More than a thriller, Wright’s nov­el explores the com­plex his­to­ry between Israel and Pales­tine, reveal­ing the trag­ic human scale of this long-stand­ing con­flict and offer­ing a nuanced per­spec­tive on a tragedy that con­tin­ues to shape the region and the world.