I was privileged to meet Alison Pick in person at a Penguin Random House event in Toronto, which showcased several upcoming books that retailers, librarians, and book bloggers could easily get excited about. At the end of the session, attendees were given a copy of Strangers with the Same Dream with an opportunity to hear its author speak and then personally sign the book. I had not yet read the novel—and in my ignorance, was not yet familiar with Alison Pick’s work.

But, I am now thrilled to say that has thankfully changed with my recent reading of her latest novel that serendipitously found its way into my book tote, and then later onto my night table, and eventually to my Completed Reads Bookshelf—and has become one of my favourite books of 2017.
Strangers with the Same Dream is written with an elegant narrative, a voice that renders its readers into the private world of communal living in the culture of a young, Jewish kibbutz, working the land and building a new Israel.
The intricacies and workings of this kibbutz is tenderly written with a reverent eye on its ancestors’ traditions and its new ideals, its hope for enlightenment with its connection to the land and its people, and its plans for settlement and its growing future.
And while ideals and motivated speeches urge the community to plod on in its newness and in its toil, its insecurities, and its doubts—the truths shown in frustrated plans in trying to build a new community from bare land and few resources, reveal a private and fragile innocence soiled by lust, pride, and self-centredness by a few that reverberate its consequences throughout the kibbutz, and ultimately affect the entirety of the young collective.
Within the fascinating details of what it means to be a young, Jewish person part of a collective that embarks on the challenging task of building a home and community in 1921, Israel—is the private yearning, tension, and struggle some individuals face in integrating themselves into the kibbutz they committed themselves to.
The novel is sensitively told through the perspective of key characters: Ida, whose plainness is overtaken by her reverent hope and obedience to the ideals of her ancestors and Jewish traditions; to David, the commune’s self-appointed and volatile leader whose misguided sense of control evolves into lapses of poor judgement, paranoia, and several mistakes, which lead to the book’s climatic resolve; to Hannah, whose role as wife, mother, and matriarch burden her with the loss of her personal motherhood and autonomy to the rules endorsed by the life of the commune.
Within these characters’ narratives are by no means, secondary characters, but rather other key characters who play a vital role in propelling the plot to the richness of the book’s emotional complexity and hidden deconstruction.
Strangers with the Same Dream is an extraordinarily intimate journey of what it means to conquer and reclaim not only a land of promised Jewish inheritance, but of the needs of the individual versus the needs of the communal; the tension between hope and its ever-renewing sense of idealism against the hardship of reality’s frugal cooperation, lack of resources, and sometimes disappointing and even devastating outcomes; and the ever-changing dynamic between power, provision, corruption, and equality.
I love this book. It’s written with intelligence and tenderness, and evokes a plot filled with restrained violence and passionate hope. Readers will quickly be immersed in the story as one might themselves become a member of this young, naive, yet hopeful kibbutz, and become privy to the internal struggles of its complex characters whose reign to self, battles with the higher calling to concede to the faith and livelihood of a collective and its ideals.
It’s a beautiful and necessary historical fiction, which addresses the fundamental and emotional turmoil—and deep satisfaction—the individual can face amidst a collective diligently hoping and working towards an unknown future.
***
Characters: 5 stars
Plot: 5 stars
Language/Narrative: 5 stars
Dialogue: 5 stars
Pacing: 5 stars
Cover Design: 5 stars
***
Zara’s Rating: 5 stars

I really enjoyed the historical setting of this novel - the founding of a kibbutz in 1921 Palestine - which was not one I had read about before. The structure of the novel is also very well done, alternating between perspectives in a layered manner. My only issue was with the characters, and their lack of 3-dimensionality. I just found them a bit flat and unbelievable, although there were moments when they did really shine. I will certainly look for more by Pick in the future.

This book was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3+ stars. I wanted to like Strangers with same Dream more than I did. Alison Pick took an interesting risk with this one, both in terms of the topic and structure. The story is set in Palestine in the 1920s as a group of Jews who have recently immigrated from European countries work to set up a Kibbutz. Pick has chosen to tell the same story from three points of view in three successive narratives. Ida is 18 years, very naive and idealistic, and inadvertently thrown into the middle of complicated personal politics between members of the Kibbutz. David is the ostensible not particularly likeable leader who relies heavily on the view that marriage is a bourgeois institution to justify his actions. Hannah is David's wife, and she experiences the tragic consequences of David's personality flaws. The historical context is fascinating and Pick plumbs its political, social and ethical complexities. However, there were a couple of things that significantly weakened the reading experience for me. First, the personal politics between the characters felt overly dramatic and seemed to replicate much fiction or reality based on a male narcissistic character who exploits his relationship with women. Second, the three parallel narratives ended up feeling a bit gimmicky and repetitive -- unfortunately, Hannah's is the most compelling and yet it comes at the end. Having said all of that, I have a lot of respect for Pick for taking on this fascinating and fraught historical context. I don't regret reading Strangers with the same Dream, but it makes me feel like reading more non fiction about the history of Kibbutz. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.