Queen of the Jews

In contemporary New York City, a Jewish woman falls in love with a Palestinian wall painter who has been charged with killing her. Galia, a Russian Jew living in New York, has no idea that the man she’s drawn to, Alejandro (not his real name), isn’t Mexican at all, but is actually a Palestinian who carries out the wishes of his Mastermind, ostensibly a college professor. Where she sees a passionate, hard-to-reach riddle of a man, he sees a woman who is swept up in a global conspiracy to undermine Palestinian claims to Jerusalem-all because of a book she posted online about the ancient Hasmonean dynasty. But as they draw closer, Alejandro begins to question his assignment, putting them both in grave danger. Very original. A monumental work of vibrant imagination. –Moris Farhi, Turkish author, vice-president of International PEN since 2001 This rich…novel works on many levels, and it is impossible to label it, to define it by genre. It is both a love story, a philosophical novel, a historical novel, a surreal fable, a meditation on the absurdity of extremism, an allegory of our condition, and a mystery. In a nutshell, it is an original and beautiful novel. –Dmitry Borshch