Exile

by Richard North Patterson

From one of America's most compelling novelists comes the mesmerizing story of a lawyer who must defend the woman he loves against a charge of conspiring to assassinate the prime minister of Israel

David Wolfe's life is approaching an exhilarating he's a successful San Francisco lawyer, he's about to get married, and he's being primed for a run for Congress. But when the phone rings and he hears the voice of Hana Arif—the Palestinian woman with whom he had a secret affair in law school—he begins a completely unexpected journey. The next day, the prime minister of Israel is assassinated by a suicide bomber while visiting San Francisco; soon, Hana herself is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder. Now David faces an agonizing Will he, a Jew, represent Hana—who may well be guilty—or will he turn away the one woman he can never forget?

The most challenging case of David's career requires that he delve deep into the lives of Hana Arif and her militant Palestinian husband, both of whom have always lived in exile. Ultimately, David's quest takes him to Israel and the West Bank, where, in a series of harrowing encounters, he learns that appearances are not at all what they seem.

Culminating in a tense and startling trial with international ramifications, Exile is that rare novel that both entertains and enlightens. At once an intricate tale of betrayal and deception, a moving love story, and a fascinating journey into the lethal politics of the Middle East, this is Richard North Patterson at his most brilliant and engrossing.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Audiobook, Historical Fiction, Suspense, Legal Thriller

562 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Richard North Patterson is the author of fourteen previous bestselling and critically acclaimed novels. Formerly a trial lawyer, Patterson served as the SEC’s liaison to the Watergate special prosecutor and has served on the boards of several Washington advocacy groups dealing with gun violence, political reform, and women’s rights. He lives in San Francisco and on Martha’s Vineyard.
Macmillan.com Author Profile

Awards
Edgar Award, 1980, Best First Novel for The Lasko Tangent

Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, International Award, 1995 for Degree of Guilt

http://us.macmillan.com/author/richar...

Reviews

[Winnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book not only tells the romantic story of a Jewish lawyer in love with a Palestinian law professor wrongly accused of a capital crime, it ALSO educates. As with any conflict there are always two points of view in a matter. In my opinion, Exile would be an excellent book to read for anyone who honestly wants to understand more about the Jewish/Palestinian conflict.
David Wolfe seems to have everything. A good job as a lawyer in San Francisco, engaged to a wonderful woman, he also is being slated to run for Congress. But with one phone call that about to all change.

Thirteen years before, Hana Arif a Palestinian woman studying in the United States, met David at Harvard where he was a law student. They had a love affair for several months but she returned to the Middle East against David's protests and married a fellow Palestinian. Now her phone call to David is to say she is visiting the states with her husband and their 12 year old daughter. When she asks David to meet them for lunch, he is hesitant realizing his former feelings for Hana.
A few days after David hears from her, the visiting Israeli Prime Minister is killed by a terrorist attack and Hana is implicated through hearsay and circumstantial evidence. Hana asks David to represent her, against his better judgment he agrees, destroying his political career and his engagement. David has to travel to Israel to seek important evidence as the case possibly involves a larger conspiracy.

This was an excellent novel which doesn't take sides, but tries to explain the plight of both the Jews and the Palestinians. The plot was excellent and timely. More importantly, the author clearly researched both sides of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. His ability to make the reader sympathize with both sides shows a unique writing style.
The book not only acknowledges why and how the Jewish people have felt victimized and oppressed BUT ALSO the Palestinian point of view. BOTH sides have sustained needless suffering, pain and death of its innocents.

The author himself states in his final comments how he has tried to be fair and objective while realizing at the same time there would always be someone who would feel offended.
There are very complex issues involved here. You pity those who try to achieve compromise in the midst of all this conflict. The interweaving of a personal story with the facts of the Israeli Palestinian conflict make this book dynamic and moving.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Where does history begin?” Less than ten chapters into Richard North Patterson’s Exile, this question looms poignantly over the entire thesis of the book. To be up front, I must be one of the last people in the country to read a book by this author. To be even more up front, I have been avoiding his books because I had him confused with a very mediocre book by James Patterson called The Beach House. I realize that is tantamount to confusing a book on politics by the late Woodrow Wilson with my book on Sid Meier’s Civilization, but I’m confessing so that you can feel my surprise.

Even when this book was given to me with an “I know you’ll like it” affirmation from someone who knows my taste, I placed it far to the bottom of my “to read” pile and rotated it to the bottom on several occasions. Did I really want to read a thriller so close to the kind of terrorism that impacts us every day from color-coded threat alerts, allegedly foiled terrorist plots, invasive airport searches, and the like? There was a time when I had a great deal of sympathy for the Palestinians and even hosted a student in my home over the holiday break when his institution’s dorms closed for Christmas (probably inexplicable to him, though he heard about the real meaning of Christmas from me and participated as much as he wanted with our family). But that was decades before 9/11 and a place in my heart has hardened since those events. There is no trust, no fundamental assumption of integrity or even humanity. Oh, to be sure, I meet plenty of Muslims in my work and I have no mistrust of them as individuals, but my entire political persuasion has changed. I do not trust them as a political entity.

Okay, bias accounted for. Now, on with the show! Exile does a marvelous job of touching on the very emotional underpinning of the Israeli-Palestinian situation from both sides. One character struggles with his secular Jewishness while seeking to understand, even love, another character that can never forgive either the Americans or Israelis for atrocities committed in 1948. A supporting character whispers in tears that if Israel ever ceases to exist, all Jews will perish (p. 58). A major character complains that her family was converted overnight into an Arab minority in a Jewish state of the outside world’s creation (p. 18). For one group of characters, history began at Auschwitz (“At that moment, I knew that the most important thing that would ever happen to me had happened before I was born.” (p. 61). For another group, it began in 1948 (“For Hana, the date was the flight of her family in 1948—as with Carole, she was marked by events she had never witnessed.” (p. 62). He touches on the former news media bias toward Israel as a potential terrorist said, “Even our deaths were about Jews and their feelings.” (p. 66). Patterson does a terrific job of balancing sympathy and keeping the events in perspective from an emotional level.

I also resonated with the idea that Arabic culture is a “shame” culture as opposed to Jewish (and Christian) culture which is a “guilt” culture. Think about that for a while and it will blow your mind. Does this suggest, as Patterson implies, that the public ethic and faith is more important than the private or that the public ethic presupposes the private faith? I’m sure most Arabs would assert the latter, but Patterson’s book suggested (and some of my personal observations suggest) the former. This is far more than I expected from this book.

On another level, I was very intrigued by the premise of the book. Patterson could have simply made this a “torn between two lovers” book (as it is in many ways), but it seems like the human relationships, particularly the man and woman relationships, ring very true. I have read in the pop psychology books that one leaves/keeps something with every sexual partner—not only biologically but emotionally. My wife is even more hard-nosed in her observation. She says that every person you’ve slept with or wanted/want to sleep with has power over you. By saying this, she didn’t even refer to Jesus’ warning about “adultery in the heart” that caused presidential candidate Jimmy Carter so much grief, but she was certainly congruent with Jesus’ statement. Sexual relationships have power and power can be used for good or evil. In Exile, the protagonist’s university affair had already had significant consequences well before the events portrayed in this thriller. To me, that was a very honest aspect of the book. I particularly liked the expression toward the middle of the book (p. 260) where the lovers were said to have had fingerprints left all over them.

Some of my favorite lines from the book (those that do not provide spoilers) include the following.

First, the speech by the Israeli prime minister who (I don’t think it’s a spoiler if it’s written on the book cover) is later assassinated to progress the plot. He said:
“There are some Jews who are so consumed by the tragedies of three thousand years that they cannot see the sufferings of Palestinians. There are some Palestinians that are so blinded by the suffering of sixty years ago that they cannot acknowledge the suffering of Jews. Today, Palestinians call the day of Israel’s founding the ‘day of catastrophe,’ marking it with the moment of silence with which we, on our Day of Remembrance, recall the victims of the Holocaust.” (pp. 98-99)

Second, when describing the fundamentalists of the so-called Christian right and their attitude toward Israel as a catalyst for the “end-times,” Patterson described Israel as “the canary in God’s mineshaft.” (p. 208)

Third, describing the impact of the trial on the attorney protagonist: “I don’t want to talk about myself…as though I’m some spare part. The world is filled with spare parts. But also with families, some of whose members see each other for who they are, and even tell the truth.” (p. 556)

And, of course, I can’t resist revealing a funny typographical error: “Under federal law, killing a foreign leader is publishable by death.” (p. 110)

If there is any room for criticizing this book, I suspect that it would come under that old canard of predictability. Sometimes, one feels that the main mystery or the mysteries in a book are far too easy to solve. In this case, there are multiple mysteries: identities of handler(s) and security leak(s), motivations (personal and public), and opportunity (a vital part of any case). I will confess that I figured out the identity of the handler and the main motivation fairly early, but that (as I would contend is the case in any good mystery) I was caught up in a myriad of alternative possibilities that kept me in doubt through about two-thirds of the book. I believe that was definitely sufficient and should mitigate the accusation that it is a very predictable book. Yes, overall, Exile is predictable, but within its episodic sections there is sufficient unpredictability that it seemed alive to me. In many ways, it reminded me of those times as a teenager when I blitzed through geopolitical thrillers like Fail-Safe and The Ugly American.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dreaded this book because 1. I am not a fan of the author after reading 13 of his books- he's too liberal for moderate viewpoint and he's too wordy 2. It was 728 pages in an oversized paperback BUT 1. It was the last fictional book I brought on my 3+ month trip to Florida 2. I had paid $9.99 for it in 2007 and felt I at least had to try it.

It turned out to be a compelling story of a Jewish lawyer defending his past love, a Palestine woman, for the murder of the Israeli Prime Minister in America. I found I could not put this book down. Without taking a stand [unusual for him] he presented both sides of the Jewish/Palestine problems. Despite it being fiction it took you on a journey to give you an understanding of what and why the problems are there and unfortunately may never be solved. [If you are Jewish you probably will not like the book since he does make a case for the Palestine people and by the same token if you are Muslim you will not like it because he makes a case for the Jews.]

The next time I come across one of his books on the library shelves I may just check it out and hope it is as good as this one!

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far it's quite captivating. I thought that since it was so long that I would tire of it, but I haven't. I do think it's very LONG on sympathy for the Palestinians, however my mother pointed out that the title is in fact "Exile" as in the Palestinian exile. I have 150 or so more pages to go but so far the book loses stars for too-brief synopses of Israeli history, predictable plot twists (if I am right) and lack of development of a few aspects of the main character's romantic relationship at the start of the book.

I am done now and still leave it at 3 stars, a great read but I HATED the ending my gosh BOOOOO HISSSSS but still worth reading. Wonder if it will involve a sequel or if he writes those, have not read his books before.

[S R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dear Reader,
Having devoted so much time to reading Patterson’s book “Exile”, please take the time to read the information below which will help you formulate an independent decision about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I enjoyed this book, but had numerous problems with the author’s choice of information and implicit judgments. Mr. Patterson attempted to present all sides of a complicated situation with his thesis; that the Israelis and Palestinians are not listening to each other’s narratives. I think it is impossible to not have a bias. From the prologue, one can see that Mr. Patterson did a tremendous amount of impressive research and mixed fact with fiction in order to make his story more interesting. For example, the story told of a few times when a woman who was pregnant was not allowed to go across a checkpoint to a hospital in Israel losing her ability to have children and pretty much losing her mind and another story about numerous children who were disabled (with cerebral palsy or mental retardation, etc.) because Israel would not assist them medically. Palestinians routinely receive medical treatment in Israeli hospitals especially pregnant women and children.

I am knowledgeable about Israeli-Palestinian conflict and therefore could pick out bias from facts If I knew nothing about the Palestinian Israeli issue, my heart would go out go out to the Palestinian “victims of Israeli atrocities” and would even blame the mess on the “Israeli Occupation” which is not where the problems of the Palestinians began or is the main issue today (even though the media would have you believe so).

Do the Arab countries, the originators who created the Palestinian problems and caused the atrocities of Sabra and Shatilla, carry no responsibility for the problems of the Palestinians yesterday and today? Why weren’t they ever absorbed into the Arab countries where they resided and given citizenship? The Palestinians are the world’s oldest unsettled refugee population, having been under the ongoing governance of Arab states following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Were the Palestinians scapegoated in order for the Arab dictatorships to deflect their own social and political turmoil and atrocities onto Israel and the Jews? Where is this narrative in the story?

Also, there was much attention given to crazy ultra-religious settlers. They are a very small fringe group of Israelis. The Israeli Right is very complicated and not just made up of these settlers. Yes, Patterson explained well how deep the anti-Semitic hatred is with the Palestinians and that having no Jews in the Middle East is more important than building a state which is the crux of the problem. How do you negotiate and listen to another person’s narrative when their narrative involves your own destruction? When there are Palestinians who wish to work on peace, they are labeled collaborators and are murdered. Fast-forward to today, no Palestinian leader has openly recognized Israel as a Jewish state. And some Palestinian leaders, such as Hamas, remain staunch in their unwillingness to recognize Israel’s Jewish identity. So is it a surprise that Israeli leadership is skeptical of Palestinian commitment to co-existing alongside a Jewish Israel? Does the author think that Israel does not know that this narrative exists?
Another historical distortion was when Jamal in Jenin described the West Bank as having been occupied first by the Romans; Here is a 5 minute video about 4000 year history of “occupation”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mR2W... Islam didn’t exist until the 7th century….so who was occupied? During the time of the Ottoman Empire, the area was a wasteland with poor farmers who paid money to absentee landowners who were throughout the empire and the majority of Arabs were part of tribes. So, the myth of how “the Israelis made us (Palestinians) killers” is a blatant falsehood. “We lived in peace until the Jews came here” is another myth.

Another point Patterson tries to make is the belief that “Americans and Jews have power. The Jewish have power with money and the media……” is straight out of Nazi propaganda which was never mentioned. How do you deal with that narrative? Furthermore, the Palestinians are highly adept with generating propaganda which is embraced far more often than facts of situations would deserve.

The last myth that was mentioned many times in the book is that history of Israel began with the Holocaust. There was no mention of how the Ottoman Empire was destroyed during WWI and then the entire Empire was divided up into nation states that exist today. Before WWI, the Jews were promised a Jewish state. The country was not a result of WW2 and the survivors of the Holocaust as Patterson suggests. A very important fact was not mentioned. Although much is heard about the plight of the approximately 30 to 50,000 Palestinian refugees from the aftermath of the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, little is said about the 820,000 Jews who were forced to flee from Arab states before and after the creation of Israel. In 1945, roughly 1 million Jews lived peacefully in the various Arab states of the Middle East, many of them in communities that had existed for thousands of years.
In fact, these refugees were largely forgotten because they were assimilated and absorbed into their new homes, mostly in Israel, and neither the U. N. nor any other international agency took up their cause or demanded restitution for the property and money taken from them. So again, why weren’t the Palestinian refugees resettled by their Arab brethren? This is an important part of the narrative that is not mentioned.

So, one can see that even though Patterson attempted to deal fairly with a complicated situation. In my judgment, his bias and distortions overwhelm his attempts to be even handed.

[Ruby Grad · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up.

I deeply appreciated that an author as well known and widely read as Richard North Patterson (Author) undertook a plot involving the situation between Palestinians and Israelis and described each side and the dilemmas anyone faces in trying to sort it out. Although it was written in 2006 and published in 2007, it is a timely read now, given Oct. 7, 2023 and its aftermath.

As a mystery, though, it has its flaws. The legal case seems tenuous at best and I had difficulty believing a United States Attorney would pursue it. And two of the big reveals, that don't happen until fairly close to the end, were predictable early on.

But it is a good read, and I recommend it especially for those who want to understand the history of Israel and the West Bank and get a taste of what life is like there even now.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Exile, by Richard North Patterson. A-plus.
Downloaded from audible.com.
This book will make my top ten this year. David Wolfe is a lawyer whose career seems assured. He has private wealth from his parents, he has a law degree from Harvard, a very successful law practice in San Francisco, growing visibility in San Francisco’s Jewish community, and is being groomed to run for Congress. He has a fiancé, who supports his goals and helps him already by hosting parties for him. Carol hosted a private party for the visiting Prime Minister of Israel. The speech he gave was full of hopes for eventual peace in the Middle East. The next day, the prime minister is assassinated during a parade in his honor in downtown San Francisco.

A couple of days before the assassination, David received a call from Hana Arif, a Palestinian woman with whom he had a passionate love affair while they were both in law school. She and her husband are in San Francisco to protest the actions of the prime minister. After the prime minister is killed, Hana is arrested for his murder. She requests that David be her lawyer. As he investigates the case, he becomes aware that there is great intrigue throughout the Middle East involved in this case. Love and betrayal are also involved. David goes to Israel, and the reader is given a vivid portrait of the country and its complicated politics, along with a look at the West Bank and the Palestinian movement. This book was carefully researched, and the history he presents is as important as the plot. Of course his presentation of the final trial is spell binding as well. I very much recommend this book.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is based on Jewish/Palestinian conflict. I must say Richard North Patterson had well researched the contents of this book. The main character is a Jew lawyer David Wolfe in United States of America. Narrative was great and it was a page turner for me. It shows the vicious cycle of killing from both sides and refusal to live in peace. As things stand today peace between Israelis and Palestinians would not be achievable unless years old conflict for religion and land ownership is resolved. The author wrote “David said since when did god become a real estate agent.” How very true it is. The whole issue has become eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. There is lack of political will on both sides to make some type of settlement for lasting peace.

I was amazed by what David said “I’m reminded of the words of a German pastor who died in one of Hitler’s concentration camps: ‘First they came for Communist, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jewish. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak on my behalf.”

Even though there is so much history the partial love story, court case and suspense made up for it. This is a must read for any reader as it shows both sides of the conflict. I got a better understanding of these issues even though I am well versed on the subject. I have enjoyed this authors writing skills.

[Penny Shales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard North Patterson (NOT to be confused with James Patterson!) is an author who must spend months if not years researching hi books. He is alway thought provoking while being very readable and I think I have read all of his books except for the one where he deals with the notion of capital punishment. That is a subject that fills me with such horror that I don;t feel strong enough to spend hours in the company of the notion. Exile is about the Israeli Palestine problems and plunges into the convoluted world where there is no real right or wrong just various degrees of wrong. He has a clear grasp of what the problems are in this troubled part of the world but, like the rest of the world, has no real solution - after all if he did have the answer he would probably be heading the UN not writing books! However, both sides of the conflict would do well to read this human powerful book

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not normally a big fan of thrillers, but this one got my attention. The title was recommended by a participant in the Conflict and Resistance in the Middle East series that my library helped create last year. It is mostly a legal drama, but the trial is set against the backdrop of the ongoing and seemingly endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In it we meet a cast of characters whose personal backgrounds and political beliefs span the entire spectrum. Assuming that Patterson got it right (and my reading on the topic - while not comprehensive - made me think he did get it right), this novel is a great way to learn a lot about this conflict.

It's a pageturner! I can see it on screen, too...

[Sherif Ismail · Rating 4 out of 5]

اخيرا خلصتها بعد ٤٠ يوم من بدايتها رغم اني بقرأ بسرعه.😁..
الروايه جميله جدا و متشعبه و داخله في مناطق شائكة جدا في مشكله فلسطين و الاحتلال الاسرائيلي بيحاول فيها الكاتب إظهار وجهات نظر كل التيارات الموجوده من أطراف الصراع..
الي بيحب جو روايات المحاكمات فدي روايه محاكمات بامتياز.. في بعد أخلاقي كبير جدا و جزء اكشن جيد جدا..
يمكن يكون في بعض الاجزاء مش مريحه بالنسبه لي زي العلاقه بين بطلي الروايه لكن في النهايه الروايه فعلا قويه و الكاتب عامل فيها مجهود غير طبيعي و ينصح بيها جدا..
ملحوظه دي من الروايات الي عمري ماقدر اخد قرار بقراءتها تاني لانها طويله جدا 😀

[Tom Tischler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engrossing tale about Israel and Palestine fighting
over land. As the tale goes on both sides have valid points and
the solution seems to be a compromise. But every time this comes
up something happens and they end up killing each other again.
David Wolfe is a Jewish guy going to Harvard to study law where
he meets Hana Arif a Palestinian girl and they fall in love. She
tells him from the beginning this can never be because she has
been promised to someone else and her family would never under-
stand. After graduation she returns to Israel and he never hears
from her again for thirteen years. He gets a call and it's her
telling him she is coming to San Francisco with her husband and
daughter and would like to see him. The Prime Minister of Israel
is giving a speech on his plan for peace. And her husband is coming
to say why this cannot be. After the speech on the way to the
airport is car is blown up. David receives a call from her saying
that she has been arrested for the murder and would he be her
lawyer. Now we have the trial and the almost impossible task of
proving her innocent. If you are interested at all in this conflict
don't miss this one.

[Drick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books begins with the assassination of the peace-seeking prime minister of Israel while speaking in San Francisco. The Palestinian woman accused of orchestrating the suicide bombing calls her former Jewish lover of 13 years before to defend her in the trial that follows. Thus the stage is set for a trial with all sorts of intrigue and twists and turns. However, Richard Patterson uses this event as the springboard to explore the many-faceted struggle between the Palestinians and Israelis over the land they both occupy. While at points it seems overly obvious that Patterson is going to great lengths to explore all sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he does a great job of letting all sides tell their story from their perspective. I was left with a greater appreciation of the issues involved and the difficulty of resolving the conflicts in that war-torn land. So Patterson succeeds in telling a great story, while disabusing us from looking for quick and easy solutions to the centuries-old battles over who has "ownership" and rights in that little strip of land known as the "holy land". Given the conflict that Patterson describes for us, that title is indeed a misnomer.

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not see climax coming!

Just when I thought I knew who the bad guy was author Patterson threw something into the mix and he kept it coming! All the main characters were antagonists!
David Wolfe, a Jew, meets Hana Arif, a Palestinian, in college. They fall in love and have a secret affair but can’t marry because Hana’s family has set her up in an arranged marriage. Hana returns to her country and marries. When Hana and her husband, who also attended law school with David and Hana, and daughter returns to America, a suicide bomber kills the prime minister of Israel and Hana is accused of being the bomber’s handler. Hana calls David to represent her.
The court room drama is action-packed and will keep you guessing until the end.
Dennis Boutsikaris did a good job in telling the story.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patterson has created, through a fictional matrix, a story of the tragedy of the Israeli and the Palestinian conflict. Jewish David Wolfe is in law school at Harvard when he meets a Hana Arif, Palestinian woman at a debate. They have an affair but Hana is betrothed to a Palestinian and she returns to the West Bank to marry him. Thirteen years later he receives a call from her, she is in the United States. This is one of the best crafted novels I have read in a long time. It is a very compelling read. Highly recommended.

[Reynold Levocz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping novel of the ironic terminology “The Holy Land” consumed in wretched displacement, hatred and unrelenting violence. In one sense, this is an eye opening history lesson encased in a story of lost love.

[Win Blevins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. Marvelous. A supremely good novel

Can't remember when a story so engrossed me. If you want an extraordinarily powerful book, then this one is for you.

[James Clay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the many of books I’ve read on Isreal& Palestine this was the first of them fiction and I loved it. Through the twists and turns of a courtroom drama the author delicately humanises the conflict from each perspective. Couldn’t recommend highly enough

[Edo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un romanzo complesso, che suscita emozioni diverse, trattando di un tema "nuovo", anche per lo stesso Patterson: il conflitto tra Palestina e Israele, unito a quello della ricerca della terra promessa per il popolo ebraico.
La trama è particolarmente intricata, ma a ragion veduta, e non poteva essere diversamente, visto il difficile tema da trattare.
Va riconosciuto all'autore il merito di essere stato capace di andare oltre il suo solito stile: si tratta sempre di un legal/political thriller, ma questa volta gli sforzi hanno travalicato la semplice aula di tribunale e le controversie fra le parti.
Ho percepito, estremamente, pesante l'aver dovuto incentrare il romanzo sul conflitto Palestina-Israele. É comprensibile, data la complessità dell'argomento e la difficoltà di descriverlo esaustivamente, ma è una delle prime volte che "strascico" la lettura di uno dei suo romanzi per settimane.
Ci sono alcuni punti del romanzo dove la trama diventa davvero lenta e poco interessante, e il lettore non è stimolato a continuare.
La parte dedicata al viaggio di David è stata altrettanto pesante, ma più dinamica, e questo ha reso più fluida la lettura.
Al centro - ed è questo che al lettore interessa, oltre al resto - c'è un'interessantissima storia d'amore sui generis, non convenzionale, tra David, ebreo americano, e Hana, palestinese musulmana, e donna forte e indipendente.
Sorvolando tutte le vicende della metà del romanzo, il lettore è sicuramente portato ad essere più attento nell'ultima parte, quella riguardante il processo di Hana Arif.
Senza fare spoiler, la novità, che cambia le carte in tavola nel processo e nella vita di David, era abbastanza palese fin dall'inizio, ma è stata comunque gestita bene, senza cadere nel ridicolo.
Il finale: mi aspettavo una rivelazione scioccante sulla responsabilità dell'attentato, invece quest'alternativa era stata già scartata diverse pagine prima. Ad ogni modo, pur aspettandomi un lieto fine, ho apprezzato lo stesso la fine. É stata meno scontata di quanto ci si potesse immaginare, e sicuramente molto più realistica e verosimile.
Consigliato a chi interessa l'argomento del conflitto in Medio Oriente, mentre può essere una novità a cui approcciarsi per gli appassionati del legal thriller, ma ammetto che non è per tutti.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book in the genre of My Sister's Keeper or The Runaway Jury, i.e., a standard page-turner/thriller/courtroom drama attempting to tackle a larger issue -- in this case, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The basic premise is that David Wolfe, a nominally Jewish lawyer pursuing a career in politics and engaged to the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, feels compelled to defend Hana Arif, a Palestinian woman who is also his former lover, accused of engineering the assassination of the Israeli prime minister on American soil.

Certain things about this book were impressive. It definitely succeeds as a pageturner; some plot developments were a little too predictable but I never got bored with the book or found myself bogged down. I also admired Patterson's research and his attempts at evenhandedness. There was a bit of deja vu for me in reading this immediately after reading From Beirut to Jerusalem, which Patterson seems to have also read. I was less enamored of the love story between David and Hana, which seemed superficial and unbelievable as this grand passion sustained over 13 years, spoiling either of them from truly loving anyone else. But given that this is a pageturner and not a literary novel, I guess I have to suspend my disbelief a bit. I also had some picky questions -- how could Hana be known by her maiden name in a culture where women weren't even free to choose their own husbands? Why was Hana's birthplace continually described as "Sabra and Shatila" -- wouldn't it have been only one of them?

Overall, though, it was an easy and interesting read and should be a good choice for our book club.

[Doug Bradshaw]

Divergent is a fast and interesting read. It is a coming of age story set in a war school where 16 year olds are going through a Marine-like boot camp to learn how to become soldiers by learning physical, emotional and intellectual battling skills. There is a lot of testosterone (both in the males and females) flying around and some pretty unfair and gruesome fighting, pretty much among the troops instead of with the enemy. Many of the learning sequences, some of which are advanced simulations and others of which are real hand to hand combat, are fairly entertaining. There are a couple of love stories going on and then, like in most dystopian stories, there are evil leaders working to warp the system and manipulate the people for various reasons.

SPOILERS below:

I like the concept of the different groups and personalities (factions) and how Tris wants to break away from the group that whe was raised in who are always selfless, bland, loving, boring (abnegation faction) and join with the pierced, tattooed, exciting brave warriors. Almost the opposite of her upbringing. It's fairly ruthless training and some of it does remind me of the Hunger Games. As in other YA books, I like being inserted into a younger person's life as he or she experiences life, the first feelings of physical love and desire. The coming of age story.

I'm going to watch the reviews of the second book by others. I'm pretty sure I want to continue on. Like so many of these trilogies, the ending here isn't clean and satisfying.

Good little book. Interesting little future world. Tris is another Katniss. She's no Lisbeth......not that I wanted her to be.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author finished writing this in early 2006, but three years later it is just as timely in its analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian tensions in this legal thriller. The geopolitics create a fascinating framework, but what makes this such a page-turner is the well-paced story of an American attorney who finds his carefully planned life unravel in the face of a terrorist plot that forces him to make choices he never anticipated.

I'll admit that there were a few points that I found mildly irritating, particularly the female prosecutor who is rigid, aggressive and heartless to the point of being a tired cliche of women in positions of power -- yeah, my feminist sensibilities are showing. I also had moments of doubt about the credibility of this guy's ability to navigate the worlds of opposing extremists without personal injury, especially with mayhem all around him. And the big secret about the two main characters was telegraphed too early, so its revelation wasn't as surprising as it should have been.

But these are quibbles. The story was gripping, memorable, and doesn't resort to easy answers in its resolution. Fascinating!

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patterson, in all of the books of his that I've read, does things that I criticize in other authors, but it seems to work for me when he does them: He's clearly trying to teach us something, as much as tell a story, & he doesn'thesitate to bring the story almost to a halt while some character explains something to us that the author wants us to know, nor does he hesitate to take a position on controversial issues, though he takes pains to show us how complex the issues are & to recognize the legitimate motives of people on the other side. In this book he sheds light on the intractable conflict between Israeli Jews & palestinians even as he gives us a real page-turner of a story about the trial of a Harvard-educated Palestinian woman for the murder--in the U.S. (San Francisco, specifically)--of an Israeli leader who seemed to represent some hope for peace & whose assassination virtually destroys that hope.

[Maram Rihawi · Rating 1 out of 5]

بداية الرواية بتحكي عن محامي يهودي(دايفيد) مقبل على الزواج ناجح بوظيفته بيتلقى اتصال هاتفي من فتاة فلسطينية(هناء) اقام معها علاقة عاطفية ايام الجامعة بتطلب منه مساعدتها كمحامي بسبب تورطها بتهمة قتل رئيس الوزراء
الاسرائيلي والصراع اللي مر فيه المحامي اليهودي بين حبه للفتاة الفلسطينية وبين خوفه انو تكون التهمة صحيحة بسبب المعطيات اللي بتدين بطلة الرواية بالأخير بينتصر الحب وبيختار الدفاع عنها وبتبدأ مغامرة تقصي الحقائق في بعض القرى الفلسطينية وصولا الى تل ابيب ، بتعرض الرواية وجهتي النظر الاسرائيلية والفلسطينية بحيادية حرص عليها الكاتب لدرجة افقدت الرواية متعتها بسرد طويل في بعض الفصول بداية نشأة هناء وزوجها المؤلمة في في المخيمات الفلسطينية الى وصول هناءالجامعة ولقائها بدايفيد

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is Patterson’s best. Exile is not just a legal thriller but also a love story and finding one’s root and identity. The plot of a Jewish lawyer defending a muslim woman who was once his lover is very interesting but what even more interesting is how Patterson thrown in geopolitical conflict, politics and conspiracy all together into an intriguing legal drama plus thriller….applause. I always interested in the subject of the Israeli and the Palestinian conflict and this book Patterson did a great job presenting their stories with an open mind full of empathy for both side. This is really a great read.

[jinxed]

finally finished this 700 page monster and the ending was unsatisfying 😐😐

[Judy Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much info. So many sides. I liked this book a lot because it helped me understand that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is not black and white, it is not just two sided.
I am encouraged to continue reading about these countries and the rest of the Middle East. Thank you Gettysburg College for your Conflict and Resolution in the Middle East series on Iraq and Palestine. Keep up the good work.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of the book was a vehicle to explore the Middle Eastern dilemma facing Israel and the Palestinians through years of violence and hate. It begins with an assassination of a two-state solution Israeli prime minister. The rest of the plot has to do with the unlikely relationship between a Jewish lawyer and his Muslim client, who incidentally he happened to sleep with in college...very improbable..but gave the author an opportunity to explore the ramifications. Very predictable.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredibly well researched book. For anyone looking for some clarity on the conflict in the middle east, if such a thing exists, this would help. By far the best Patterson I have read. A page turning thriller that tugs at your heart strings in a realistic, tragic but not too sappy kind of way.

[Reed Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent thriller that gives good insight into life in Israel for both the Palestinian and Hebrew. Only 3 stars due to over selling the plight of the refugees and conversations David would have with one person that were continued with another person without dropping a beat.