When There Were Heroes

Gideon Jerusalem is one of Israel’s founding heroes. Like the Jewish state itself, he is a complex character rife with contradictions. Loosely autobiographical and drawing on the author’s own family involvement with the highest echelons of Israeli political life, the novel tells of the emergence of modern Israel; of a destructive father-son relationship in which both succumb to the lure of different cultures; and of a fated love story. Gideon’s diplomatic posting to London in the 1950s intensifies the conflict between him and his son Philo, who does not quite live up to his father’s high expectations. Alienation leads to a painful and belated mutual appreciation. Philo’s impressions of Israel’s birth have the clarity and detail of a child’s innocent apprehension. As an adult, against the background of war and breakdown of a marriage, he views his native country critically but not altogether unsympathetically.