My favorite book this year! The blurb describing the story is factual but does not come close to relating the feelings you experience while reading this book! Believe me, it is so very much more than someone who has it all and it falls apart. The storyline is very cleverly laid out. The scenery is beautiful, the relationships are genuine. It is a compelling read where we learn about silicon valley, immigrants, a teenager with a heart, mothers who are broken, antisemitism, racism, Israel, and more. I hope everyone experiences this story. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is an intriguing novel. It is a page-turner, a family drama, a critique of anti-semitism, and also a twisty thriller. I enjoyed it very much but found the translation from the Hebrew to English somewhat clunky. I'm not sure if that is due to the essential difficulty of translation or issues with the translator.

Lilich is the narrator of the book. She and her husband immigrated from Israel to the United States several years ago. Her husband is the vice president of a tech company that develops secret technology for the pentagon. She has one child, a teenaged son named Adam. Adam is basically a loner and an introverted person. However, he attends a party where a young black high school student, Jamal, dies. The autopsy indicates that he had a drug overdose.

Adam begins to take a self-defense class with an Israeli man named Uri who he grows to worship. Lilich, however, has some reservations about Uri's techniques and the class itself. Uri begins to insinuate himself into Adam's family as a friend and, ultimately, an extended family member.

The story begins with a hate crime perpetrated on the local synagogue and continues with anti-semitic ravings about Jews, especially Adam, who is accused of killing Jamal. Lilich is horrified by the allegations and worries about Adam and what he is capable of and whether he was involved at all in Jamal's death.

I enjoyed the book and read through it quickly. However, I was often stalled by the awkwardness of the writing/translation.

This is a novel I’d like to put into the hands of everyone I know …..
…..[married couples, parents, older teens, educators, coaches, every social economic, and cultural backgrounds of various lifestyles, experiences and interests, every nationality, religion, sexual identity, race and ethnic group]…EVERYONE.

“The Wolf Hunt” is fierce - compelling - unsettling- emotionally page turning — with substantial depth that is also (delicately entertaining) and very engrossing.
At only 288 pages - sentences are spilling over … powerfully with suspense, contemporary relevance, and perfect-pitch dialogue…..
Ayelet Gunnar-Goshen (award winning author of “Walking Lions” and “Liar”)….and another novel I love, having read all her books). “One Night Markovich”, has outdid herself with “The Wolf Hunt”.

I hope book clubs around the country choose this novel. It stimulates worthy discussions. I know that I want to talk about this book with my friends. Others will too.

Ayelet Gunnar-Goshen is a writer of the highest decorum. So even with unsettling, sad, tragic, situations, we are taken care of in skillful hands.
This literary novel- offers a lot of valuable thought while at the same time offers thriller-compulsion-devotion. We don’t want to put the book down….and we must know the ending.
I’m still thinking about the ending - and have come to understand it’s brilliance.

We are introduced to Lilach and Michael Schuster and their sixteen year old son, Adam. They are Jews…..Israeli immigrants who live in a beautiful house in the heart of Silicon Valley ….
Ha…….”In Silicon Valley’s competitive job market, an unemployed programmer smells like a corpse rotting in the sun”.
In other words — it’s a lovely place to live with generally friendly people, great schools, yummy restaurants, many outdoor enjoyment possibilities……with cutting-edge research institutions and innovative technology companies…..
But…..
Silicon Valley is not an easy place to live for unemployed - dirt poor folks. (The Schuster’s are ‘not’ poor).

The Schuster family(Lilach, Michael, and Adam) were being pulled every which way:
….scrutinized from the outside community — (gripping details: police investigation- after-school self-defense training-Jewish community-friends-careers-in-laws)
….along with conflicting concerns that were growing from the inside the family: (Marital and parenting issues/ teen issues)

It was rumored that Adam was involved in the death of another student’s death: Jamal Jones, a Black student died of a drug overdose at a party.
It was said that Jamal bullied Adam.
Jamal’s mother, Annabella, was sure that her son was not the type of kid who did drugs….or bullied anyone.

Our narrator- Lilach (or Leela), is a mother whom I shared some controversial issues with — not everything -
but with ‘most’ of the bigger issues I found myself siding with her.
and without giving spoilers -
one of the things that makes this story so good is that we (as readers) get to try on many hats - weighing in on our opinions.
Little example:
Lilach says:
“I wanted to raise Adam in a place that had no wars. Now I was afraid I’d been wrong. We thought we were protecting Adam from the Israeli insanity, but maybe we were exposing him to a different kind of insanity”.

“Would you rather see another child, biting your child, or your child biting the other kid?”
“Mikhael told Lelich it was the only two options. “There are those who do things to others, and there are those who have things done to them”.
Your thoughts? My thoughts?

Graffiti appeared at the entrance at the high school:
“THE JEW KILLED HIM”.
Your thoughts? My thoughts?

Even before eleven people were killed in a synagogue massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue, antisemitic incidents in California schools doubled since the last operation in the Gaza Strip.
The Jewish kids in Adam’s class were being taught to fight back. They were getting self-defense training classes from Uri Ziv .
The rigorous appropriateness of the classes were questionable.
“If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill them first”, was the class motto. Too extreme? Or?

In just a few months, Uri seemed to have more powerful influence over Adam than Lilach did. If I were the mother — I would have felt much like Lilach did.
Mikhael, Adam’s dad, was eager for Adam to have self defense training. But as Lilach discovered what those training sessions entailed….she had serious doubts. I did too.
But? Perhaps I was not awake enough to the times we were living in?

Uri demanded things from kids that most adults wouldn’t. Training was done in pouring rain at times—(Adam seemed to be getting stronger from it)….as well as other (controversial), demands from the high school kids.
Adam was a sensitive, vulnerable, intellectually gifted teenager who grew to idolize Uri. He was a chemistry wiz-kid …..he had been bullied…. So? ….. did he want Jamal dead? Enough to figure out a way to kill him? Or?
Uri became Adam’s so-called hero. Uri listened to Adam — really listened.
So would Uri win over Mom too?
Would she be thankful for all that he did for Adam and their entire family?
You’ll have to read the book to know more…..

Much to discuss!!! Terrific book!!!

Highly recommended!

I finished reading this book about a week ago and have been trying to come up with a review that would do this book justice. After re-reading the book description I have decided that everything that needs to be said is contained there-in. All I can really add is that I very much enjoyed this book. It was a thriller about a family who unwittingly became pawns in the death of a teenager. This book has made me look back at the authors other novels which I have not yet read but definitely plan on doing so.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the privilege of reading this digital ARC. This review is my own.

Very powerful. Couldn't put it down. Extremely well written from the protagonist's point of view. You are living in her mind and thinking her thoughts. The story challenges how well we really can know the ones we love - those we are closest to - a husband, a child. And how do we get to know those who come into our lives. As in life, not all questions are answered. Thought provoking. Highly recommend.