5 "unflinching, superlative, astute" stars !!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Harper Collins Canada for an e-copy. I am providing my honest review. This was released February 2021.

I am uncertain how to write this review. This book frightened me, shook me, moved me. This book was courageous, sour, hopeless. I did not know how to think, what to feel, who to blame, what the fuck ?

This debut novel takes place in Israel/Palestine and follows the lives of more than a dozen characters as they navigate one of the most controversial yet holy places on our earth. Ms. Sacks has created a political drama of such relentless movement and passion that I was often breathless, nauseous, afraid. These are portraits of such complexity, such love, such vitriol, such conflict.

Ms. Sacks dives deep not just into politics and faith but into the very dark psyches of her characters exploring trauma, gender, sexuality. She never sugar coats anything but presents the world both inner and outer as conflicted, primal and complex beyond reason, beyond hope, beyond redemption.

This is a novel that should not be under the radar as this is a book that transcends any radar.

Ms. Sacks, I cannot wait to see where your insight and knowing and creativity takes you next.