Martin Fletcher, veteran Middle East reporter, crafts an historical fiction story set in 1960’s Israel. His main characters are brothers Arie and Peter Nesher, along with Tamara, a young refugee from Cairo. In truth, the brothers are refugees as well. Peter escaped Hitler’s Germany when his parents sent him to America as a teen. Arie survived the concentration camps, and fled to Israel.

The historical aspects of Promised Land intrigued me. I’d like to do more reading about this time and people’s experience in it. On the other hand, the various romances fell flat for me. Writing about young characters means relationships will happen. But Fletcher just doesn’t have the touch. His sex scenes are obviously written by a man for a male audience. So they didn’t do it for me.

Fletcher also flubbed the ending, in my view. He left several loose story ends, which was frustrating. It just felt abrupt and unsatisfying.

Historical fiction readers will enjoy this family saga as two brothers find different fates in Israel after WWII. Peter was first to be chosen to sail to America to live as Quakers strove to save the Jewish children before the war. His younger brother, Arie's did not get a chance as Peter's whole family was sent off to concentration camps. Arie did whatever it took to survive but his survival would come at a heavy moral price. The differences between the brothers were dramatic but they shared the deep drive and determination. Enjoyed all the historical content. Recommended

Historical novel depicting life and family of Israel. Depicting why people and their lives matter and how they impact one another. Beautiful.

Martin Fletcher, veteran Middle East reporter, crafts an historical fiction story set in 1960’s Israel. His main characters are brothers Arie and Peter Nesher, along with Tamara, a young refugee from Cairo. In truth, the brothers are refugees as well. Peter escaped Hitler’s Germany when his parents sent him to America as a teen. Arie survived the concentration camps, and fled to Israel.

The brothers couldn’t be more different. Peter is an intelligence officer with Mossad. Arie is a talented businessman, with questionable morals. But the one thing they have in common is Tamara.

Fletcher’s characters are well-developed, and the families they build are absorbing. The arc of history at that time is one I’m mostly unfamiliar with. Learning the details from one who experienced them adds layers of depth to this book.

The author touches on the Holocaust, the challenges of building a new country in a hostile land, as well as the efforts of Israeli intelligence to right past wrongs done to Jews. He also discusses the attitudes and perspective of three Israeli generations.

My conclusions
The historical aspects of Promised Land intrigued me. I’d like to do more reading about this time and people’s experience in it. In fact, I have a memoir and another novel on my shelves right now.

I appreciated knowing that Fletcher had concrete, real-life experience. It shows in his writing, although it occasionally became dry as a news report. On the whole, though, I was drawn into the story.

The economic and human effects of the Israeli / Palestine wars are clearly delineated. We see Peter’s role in the covert aspects of war. And, at the same time, what happens when Arie the businessman gets repeatedly called up to defend his country.

On the other hand, the various romances fell flat for me. Writing about young characters means relationships will happen. But Fletcher just doesn’t have the touch. His sex scenes are obviously written by a man for a male audience. So they didn’t do it for me.

Fletcher also flubbed the ending, in my view. He left several loose story ends, which was frustrating. It just felt abrupt and unsatisfying.

But, if you enjoy historical fiction from a unique time and place, give this one a try.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press / Thomas Dunne Books for the opportunity to read this as a digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I really enjoyed this story of 2 brothers and the woman they both love. It also gives a vivid picture of the history of Israel and the different backgrounds of the Jewish people who came to live there. One brother became very wealthy and arrogant while the other worked selflessly for his country. The girl they both loved married the wealthy one to save her family but always loved the other one. I heard that Fletcher was writing a trilogy and I am hoping to read more about these characters.

Peter and Arie are brothers born in Germany. As the Nazis start to come to power, Peter is sent to America. Arie and the rest of the family remain behind. Peter thinks all of his family has been killed in a concentration camp, only to discover that Arie survived and is living in Israel. When he goes to Israel to reconnect with his brother, he also has a brief, intense relationship with Tamara. It is love at first sight. But Arie also falls in love with Tamara and eventually marries her. So begins a life long love triangle between Peter, Arie and Tamara.

I loved how Mr. Fletcher wove the history of Israel in and out of this love story. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I got caught up in this story. For some reason, I thought it was going to be a dry, fact driven story on Israel's history. But it was not like that at all. I liked all three main characters for different reasons although at times Arie was the most difficult to connect with. This wasn't so much a page turner due to suspense, but because the story was so well written.

My thanks to St. martin's Press and Netgalley.

Nazi Germany a family decide to send their eldest son to safety in the States, promising to send their other children; unfortunately this never happened and the family find themselves being sent to a concentration camp.
After the war, the brothers meet up again in Israel and help to build up the new Jewish state. Both have completely lifestyles but share the same belief.
Although a long book I found the history behind it very interesting to read. The Egyptian Jews; who speak Arabic using statements which we associate with Islamic greetings now. Familiar political names are mentioned in the book, showing their involvement in Middle East conflict.
I recommend this to anyone who's interested in the modern history as well as the growth of the Israel.

Promised Land by Martin Fletcher was written as a family saga set during the first 20 years of the birth of the Jewish homeland, Israel. It was very readable and gave good insights into the lives of the people of Israel during those early years. Fletcher was good at capturing the reluctance of the survivors of the concentration camps to open up about their ordeals. How the survivors repressed these memories but Fletcher was able to capture how the survivors never forgot and how those repressed memories influenced the way they led their lives consciously or unconsciously.

The Berg family lived in Munich, Germany at the beginning of World War II. In addition to the parents there were two brothers, Aren (later to be called Arie) and Peter and two sisters. The parents, in November 1939, made arrangement for the oldest son, Peter, to relocate to America. Sponsored by Quakers, Peter was successfully placed with a loving family in Wisconsin. The remainder of the family was forced to wait to see if their visas would be approved. Time was not on their side. The rest of the family was transported to concentration camps. Aren, later known as Arie, ended up in Auschwitz. He survived somehow but was not proud of the means he had to take to survive and it would haunt him every day for the rest of his life.

Peter and Arie were reunited in Israel during its earliest days of becoming the country it now is. Peter was a Mossad agent and Arie, a young entrepreneur. The philosophies of the two brothers could not have been further apart. Peter was focused on keeping Israel safe and allowing it to prosper in a safe way while Arie was determined on building Israel up with houses, roads, businesses and anything that would afford him good profits. The two brothers also both loved the same woman, Tamara, an Egyptian Jew refuge, forced to leave Egypt. Tamara, was also in love with both brothers, but circumstances led her to marry Arie. Peter married Diana later and both families had children. Both Arie and Peter, grateful to have found family, spent as much time together as their busy lives allowed.

I particularly enjoyed the historical significance in Promised Land. Martin Fletcher allowed the reader to relive the decisions, consequences and feats that Israel endured during the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the Six Days War of 1967. Through Arie's role and an Israeli commander in the Army and Peter's role as a Mossad operative the reader gets an inside look at these two crucial parts in Israel's history.

I really enjoyed reading Promised Land by Martin Fletcher. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this e-arc version of this remarkable book. I look forward to the next installment in this trilogy. I highly recommend Promised Land.

A captivating story of family love and conflict, set against the early years of Israel's history. Fascinating characters, a compelling love story, and an in-depth view of a momentous time in 20th century history.

The Promised Land is a family saga set during pre and post WWII and the founding of Israel as a state. Two German boys, Jews, are separated during WWII. One is sent to America and safety. The other is sent to a concentration camp with the rest of his family before he can be sent to join his brother. Years later, the two meet again in Israel - one now a Mossad agent, one a young entrepreneur bent on building up Israel, especially if he can make money on it. They are further linked by their love for the same woman. The main love triangle part didn't move me the way it should have, mostly because of the way it supposedly started. I very much enjoyed the look at Israel as a young nation, though, and the beginnings of their military and intelligence services. The plight of the many refugees from various countries, especially that of the Egyptian Jews, was quite interesting. I particularly enjoyed the historical parts of this story, the context around the early wars, and the growth of Israel. But even though those parts were excellent, this was a 3.5 star book for me. It could have been great; it just doesn't have the depth of Exodus by Leon Uris or Wouk's Hope and Glory. I know, I know, it's really not fair to compare them. Overall, this book interested me enough that I will most definitely read the next book in the trilogy. Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press / Thomas Dunne's Books for the e-arc of this modern history of Israel. 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars!

Promised Land is a family saga set during the first two decades of the creation of Israel. Arie and Peter are brothers, separated when they were 14 when Peter’s parents sent him to the US before war broke out and the situation got even worse for Jews in Germany. Arie survived Auschwitz and went to Israel, where he built himself up into a business tycoon. Peter left the US army and joined Mossad. The brothers were united, both holding secret feelings of guilt about how they had survived the war. Tamara and her family are Egyptian Jews who fled Egypt to Israel after WW2, meeting the brothers on the same day in a transit camp they were passing through, sealing their mutual fates for good.

I’m a huge fan of both Leon Uris and Herman Wouk. Wouk’s tremendous works on the birth of Israel, The Hope, and The Glory, set the bar super high for me when it comes to historical fiction set in post WW2 Israel, so it is honestly hard to beat that excellence for me. Promised Land is however a compulsively readable novel, and the historical accuracy and use of the author’s knowledge in the storyline is brilliant. Where it didn’t quite make it for me was in the character development and family-related storylines.

The whole love triangle part just didn’t quite work for me, and I found a lot of the characters stilted, flat, and stereotypical. For example, women were often described as if they are trophies, and a lot of the descriptions of “delicious” women’s bodies made me cringe. They have jobs and important parts in the storyline, but they are still often relegated to the back, medals that the men earn, and discard as they wish. Having personally lived in Israel and worked among kibbutzniks and families in desert moshavs, the characters just felt too stereotypical for my liking. However, the descriptions of intrigue, spy games, and wars, as well as the background of Israel in general were really good, and kept me reading until the very end.

This ended up being a 3.5 for me. The story flows and it’s easy to read, but there are moments within the family storyline that are not so believable. Historically though it is very accurate. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

This is one for fans of family sagas. Fletcher uses brothers Peter and Arie, and their love interest, Tamara, to tell the story of the early days of the state of Israel. The main characters are well fleshed out, there are some interesting cameos, and you'll learn something along the way. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. It's a fairly quick read because Fletcher knows how to tell a story.

Two Jewish brothers separated during WWII meet again when Israel is still very young One is a decorated American solider, the other has become a dishonest building contractor. Naturally they both fall in love with the same woman, and from then on it is brother against brother. The entire book is set against the background of the beginning of the Israel state. I would read it more for the history than the story of the brothers.

Had this book been the first to focus on Israel’s struggles during the first decade of its independence it might have been more successful. Happily for readers, however, antecedents such as Leon Uris’s Exodus and Herman Wouk’s The Hope and The Glory offer much more nuanced novels with much more highly developed characters and much more compelling prose than does The Promised Land. Mossad intelligence, the insights of a scholar turned reporter who is much more prescient than seems possible, the single focused quest to make money, battle scenes, oddly paired couples, and a love triangle could have converged to make a mesmerizing novel. While the ingredients are there, I’m afraid that Mr. Fletcher offered me nothing compelling and nothing new. About the best I can say is that I’ve dug out my tattered copies of Uris’s and Wouk’s works to reread as a reward for slogging through The Promised Land.

Promised Land by Martin Fletcher is not one of the best pieces of historical fiction I've read recently. Fletcher's book was lacking believability as one of the key characters was so eager to lose her virtue thereby setting up the love triangle part of the story. If you could convince yourself that a young woman, brought up in a faith-based home during the 1950s, would so easily lose her virginity then the rest of Promised Land story makes sense.

The characters were a bit lacking in depth. A good story, at least to me, allows you to fall in love with the characters leading to me to care about what happens to them during the story. I never grew to love any of the characters in this book.

Finally, there is some mild sexual activity. Fletcher writes the sex scenes with grace and style.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

Promised Land is a compulsively readable historical novel involving the founding of Israel. It features geopolitical suspense and romance woven into the turbulence that marked Israel’s early years. The story involves two brothers who vie for the same woman as life-and-death political strife ensues. Authored with a graceful hand by veteran journalist Martin Fletcher, former head of the NBC TV Tel Aviv News Bureau. 5/5

I received a review copy from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest opinion.

#PromisedLand #NetGalley

Chapter 1 in Cairo, the year 1949 and we see Tamara, 18 years old and we already know she is "trouble." Chapter 2, February 1950, Tamara, now 19, is in Sidna Ali, Israel where she meets Peter and his brother Arie. It doesn't take long for the set up of this novel. In that second chapter, Tamara and Peter have already had a sexual encounter..."her heart raced and all he wanted was to hold her!"

While Mr. Fletcher is a good journalist and has a vast knowledge of Israel's history, the fact remains that, for me, at this point I wasn't sure I would even go any further into this novel. I did go a little furthe but found the dialog a bit stilted. Unfortunately, I put the book down and couldn't go on. I will try again at a later date, but for now it's a no go. Having found out this was book one of a trilogy I can only say, not for me. My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The book was very good for me it was like reading a history very similar to my own family to thousands of families like my own. I got very involved with the family, of there children and there lives.
I found the ending quite abrupt, and it feels like there will be a follow up.
Would have liked to,know what happens to the family now as have got,to,know them very well while reading the book.
Hope there will be another one.

This is my first experience reading from this author. I have to say that I admire and respect Mr. Fletcher’s knowledge of his Middle East history and does a good job of charting complicated international politics and Israel's secret campaign against Nazi war criminals. I am a historical fiction fan reader, and most of the time I connect and understand the historical background that sets the novel. But unfortunately, it was so sophisticatedly written that I felt lost.

The Novel was more about the historical component of Israel following WWII than about the story of two German Jewish brothers who lost their family in the Holocaust and are driven apart by their love of the same woman in the fledgling state of Israel.

I wanted to feel more connected to the characters, but it had too much war related, spy related components that distracted me from what could have been a good storytelling. Not to mention the romantic part was cold, dull and somewhat childish.

I figured out this was a trilogy when I got to the last chapter, since the last 2 pages left me incomplete. I confirmed it when I googled information about this Novel. I did not know this beforehand.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This was more of a 3.5 star read for me. Last third was definitely 4 star. I was anxious to read this historical fiction by Martin Fletcher, who led NBC TV’s Tel Aviv News Bureau. I love family sagas and as Jew and daughter of Austrian immigrant forced to fled when his father was taken to the camps, this read was of interest to me. Unfortunately I found some of the character development lacking which made it challenging at times to have empathy for some of the key characters. There were also lapses in time that I felt compounded the lack of character development and empathy. I also had some trouble following the spy/war related bits. But, the book much improved for me by the last third and I definitely want to read the planned sequels. The book also inspired me to reacquaint myself with some of Israeli history. I recommend this book for readers who enjoy historical and Jewish fiction, as well as Mideast history.