I have kind of mixed feelings after finishing this book.

On the one hand, I think that Sacks expertly weaves together the lives of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. She clearly has an understanding of both sides of the conflict. A review in the Washington Post calls the novel "kaleidoscopic," which is an excellent way to describe the book. Sacks has brought in so many different characters, diving into their different lives to flesh out their experience of Israel. She jumps from a star football player, to a mommy blogger, to a young girl, all with ease, to explore each of their lives in this complicated country.

At the same time, the novel is unwieldy at times. There are moments where the characters intersect, but if you're not reading closely, you might miss the connection. The novel flows roughly chronologically, but it suddenly jumps back in time, introducing a new character. And there are just so many characters that, even for an almost-400 page book, there is just not enough space for them to all be explored fully. So instead, you get a lot of stereotypes of characters instead. There are also moments where plot points are recapped almost verbatim; at first I thought it was because we were seeing the plot from a different character's POV, but then realized that wasn't the case. I don't see the point in this beyond the fact that there are SO many stories going on and Sacks felt she needed to remind us of what was happening.

I am by no means an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so I do not feel qualified to comment on the accuracy of the portrayal. The only thing I will say is that the Palestinian characters felt more like stereotypes than the Israeli characters.

I really wanted to love this book, and at times it was certainly compelling. But I think it would have worked better as a series of short stories rather than attempting to be a novel.

Vera is a German journalist trying to sell stories about Israel and the Palestinian territories. Hamid is a first-year student at Bethlehem University. Ori, from Gush Etzion, is serving in the Israeli army. Emily, a Jewish American mother married to an Israeli animator, lives in Jerusalem. Mai is a Palestinian woman who studies with Hamid in Bethlehem. Miriam, Ori’s mother, gives religious instructions to young brides.

There is a large cast of characters in City of a Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks (HarperCollins, February 2021), and they live in close proximity to one another. The narrative follows their lives as they interact, although they rarely do. For the most part, the ensemble cast members avoid any contact with each other.

For Israelis and Palestinians alike, terror and tragedy are always present. On one side, a fourteen-year-old girl has been stabbed to death in her home in an Israeli settlement. At about the same time, a fourteen-year-old Arab boy has been beaten into a coma by an angry mob of Israeli teenagers.

These events, and how the many protagonists deal with their aftermath, are at the heart of this thought-provoking novel.

As the narrative follows the lives of Vera, Hamid, Emily, and the others, the reader becomes privy to their innermost thoughts, their desires, and their fears. Sometimes this exposure to their private lives becomes a bit too personal for comfort. The occasional explicit passage about sexual acts and fantasies distracts from the narrative and is not necessary for understanding the characters.

The most climatic moment of the novel comes not at its conclusion, but rather in its middle. It’s an explosive incident that draws the cast closer together, yet at the same time it drives them further apart than ever before.
For readers, the underlying message in the compelling, parallel stories of the novel, is that we know little about those who live on the other side of the fences and walls separating us. In City of a Thousand Gates, the author has given us glimpses of the other side. The interlocking tales may be fiction, but at their core is the reality of our lives.

I loved the premise of this book, but felt like it was ultimately muddled by all the characters. Because there are so many storylines to follow, there was never room for actual character depth and understanding their lives and motivations.

In City of a Thousand Gates, Rebecca Sacks relates life in the West Bank through almost thirty different characters, some of whom have significant interaction, others who only appear in a few pages. These varied perspectives—Israeli, Palestinian, and even American and German—depict the privilege and opportunities and the challenges and persecution conveyed by group membership.

As might be expected by the title, transition points or check points are critical hot spots of danger that highlight the disparities between groups, depending on which kind of pass one holds. They are the site of heavy surveillance and potential violence, all highly charged because of a spiraling cycle of violence whereby a teenage settler was attacked and killed in her bedroom, and a Palestinian brutally beaten in retaliation.

I thought the book was very well-written, though intense and explicit in depictions of violence. While I think Sacks would argue that the Israelis hold power and control over the Palestinians, I also think she has compassion and empathy for the motives of both groups. She certainly conveyed for me the distress that comes from constant vigilance against violence and the consequences for violating group norms.

The characters are diverse: athletes, professionals, mothers, professors, students, soldiers… With such a large cast, Sacks deliberately gave more attention to some. For me, that meant, more attention to some characters that annoyed me and less to some that intrigued me. (There is a character list at the beginning of the book.) Additionally, some plot lines seemed to be unresolved: if that was the author’s intention, I’m not sure the meaning.

While I’ve never visited the West Bank, the atmosphere of the novel rang true to me, and I think this is a valuable book for increasing understanding of the area and of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I also thought the prose was beautiful.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper for providing an advance e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rebecca Sacks is an American born writer who graduated from the Programs in Writing at the University of California, Irvine. She completed fellowships in writing and an advanced degree from Dartmouth before moving to Israel, where she received a masters in Jewish Studies. This is her first novel, and an amazing book it is. Imagine fleshing out over 20 characters of diverse ethnicities, experience and points of view in the West Bank of Israel and doing that so as to make the reader empathize with each as they interact in this fraught environment.. This is a nuanced and emotionally powerful work that engages the reader deeply and demands an expansion of mind and heart. Highly recommended.

An interpretation of the movie “Crash”. Though I had a hard time keeping up with all the characters, this novel was an eye-opening experience that I will recommend to anyone who will listen.

(Received an advanced e-copy from NetGalley) This is the first book I've read about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The Conflict has been in my periphery for some time now (a decade to be precise) but I have never invested time in doing my research or reading up on it. I am ashamed of the fact and I am making sure that is no longer the case -- especially after reading Angela Davis' "Freedom is a Constant Struggle." CITY OF A THOUSAND GATES was a good introduction for me because Sacks explored the Conflict from multiple POVs. In the beginning of the book, it felt like there were 20 characters but then at the end, I was disappointed the story mainly revolved around 4 characters (who I didn't really feel were the most pivotal of perspectives). Overall, I'm grateful for this book because it was eye-opening to see the literal gates that separated the Jewish from the Palestinians/Arabs (I'm using / because I'm still not sure what the preferred term is). I did not enjoy the writing or the plot unfolding as much as I had hoped. I'm thankful that the novel wasn't glorifying trauma in order to pull at readers' heartstrings -- Sacks describes the facts without over-embellishing and that is more than enough in the context of an active warfront in police state polluted with racial & religious animosity.

Thank you Harper Books and Netgalley for the gifted copy.

This book is an amazing debut that is beautifully written. It is incredibly ambitious as there are 20+ characters (Thankfully there is a list at the beginning to help you keep track) and the chapters jump around. It is a look at modern day Israel, Palestine, and the West Bank - with characters from both sides to give perspective.

I did have a hard time keeping track of the extensive character list, and had to refer to the front several times. Sacks does a beautiful job showing both sides to the conflict and how the characters cross paths through the story.

Rebecca Sacks debut novel is an ambitious one. She tackles the job of giving readers a glimpse of life on the West Bank of Israel for 29 people. Included are Israelis and Arabs with diverse lifestyles and problems. She does an excellent job of being able to step into the minds of the people she writes about and share their points of view. She’s able to portray what drives people—economic security, religious freedom, dignity, their children’s future and land to call their own.

This book was a fascinating portrait of modern Israel. As a person with little knowledge of the country apart from current news, I found it nuanced and detailed and vivid. I admit, however, that the large cast of characters made it difficult for me to keep them straight.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. I'll be posting my review on Goodreads and Amazon

"City of a Thousand Gates" by Rebecca Sacks is a novel about the lives of several Israeli and Palestinian people and how they intersect. While there are many facts and opinions about the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and I'm sure there will be many opinions about this book, but I appreciated how "City of a Thousand Gates" includes characters from both sides of the conflict. I did not think that Sacks whitewashed the dialogue of either the Israeli or Palestinian characters, which made me feel like the characters accurately represent the lives and feelings of people living in this area. I also thought that the writing was really beautiful. I definitely recommend this book for all fiction lovers, but especially those who like reading books that are interwoven with current events.

I have read a few books that I feel were similar to this one, where the characters life take on interaction and lead to many decisions and outlying paths. At the beginning I could kind of see how they were all going to be intertwined, but I really liked how they went on different paths than I was expecting.
This is a beautifully written book, that I am still thinking about. I may have to come back and add more once I work out all my thoughts about it.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!