Ayelet Gundar-Goshen

An exhausted Israeli doctor with a policewoman wife hits a Somalia refugee in the middle of the night when he was speeding and, knowing the man would die, flees the scene. His wife has seen the hit and run, finds the doctor's wallet and demands help for injured refugees. The plot becomes far more complicated as her motives are more complex than they seem and the doctor's attraction to her though he is deeply prejudiced is fascinating. The plot becomes far more complex than it seemed it would be and I couldn't put it down even though I was traveling in Portugal--I'd stay up at night to read it and passed it on to my friend Phyllis who loved it and has passed it on to our local library for others to enjoy.… (more)

“Everybody Lies” could be an alternative title for this book. I am not for sure there was any character that did not lie about something. And then tell more lies to cover up the earlier lies.

I was attracted to the book as soon as I heard about it. However, the book failed to live up to my expectations. The story follows Nofar, who falsely accuses a man of sexual assault. Once she told that lie, she has to tell more and more lies to avoid the truth being revealed.

Sounds like a great concept for a book. But the book read so slowly. It was like trying to pedal a bike through mud. Almost nothing happened in the book plot wise. The book was almost entirely inner thought and musings by the characters. Even after 200 pages we were no further from the start of the book than we were on page 1. A very slow read.

The book had too many characters as well, over 50 characters. Most of the characters were minor characters who were only mentioned once and never heard from again. There was also a plot line that was totally meaningless in the book. The story of Raymonde, Rivka and Areh’le was totally irrelevant to the story of Lavi and Nofar. Their story was a total waste of time and paper.

Craft wise, there were many instances of POV shifts within the same paragraph. We would be reading about Nofar, then the author would start addressing the scene from another character’s point of view. This “head hopping” was a major distraction.

Unfortunately, the last chapter which tried to wrap up the plot lines was a disaster. We were told in a few sentences how everything turned out. It was too rushed.

With some major revision and improvement, this could have been a 5-star book. But due to the many issues mentioned above, I can only give it two stars. It does deserve two stars as it at least was interesting enough I was never tempted to DNF it.… (more)

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is a literary thriller that is set in Israel. Neurosurgeon Eitan Green has a good life, married to a beautiful police officer and the father of two young boys but one night as he is coming off a long night shift at the hospital, he drives out into the desert and as he is speeding along a moonlit road, he hits someone. This one deadly mistake could ruin his life, his family and his reputation so as he gazes down upon the dying man, he makes the decision to not report the accident. This decision brings Sirkit into his life. She is the dead man’s wife who blackmails him into providing medical care to other illegal African refugees.

The story advances and we share in Eitan’s moral crisis as his guilt and shame engulf him. To make matters worse, his wife has been assigned to the hit and run case, and although her supervisors aren’t particularly interested in whether she finds culprit who killed an illegal immigrant, she does want to find out who did it. Eitan also can’t explain the building relationship he is developing with Sirkit, on one hand he hates her for the power she has over him, but on the other, he is struggling with the building sexual tension that arises between them.

The story is excellently written but is very dense and the pacing is quite slow. Not only are we reading of Eitan and his dilemma but also of the prejudice that exists when dealing with refugees and illegal immigrants. It’s a grim story but one that probes the complexity of our moral choices. The book is beautifully translated from Hebrew by Sondra Silverston and is a remarkable novel that deals with morality, power and prejudice.… (more)