Exile
A Thriller
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4.4 • 59 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
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 peak: 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 choice: 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Patterson's new thriller with its focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been overtaken by events (there's no mention of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 or the recent fighting across the Lebanese border), but the underlying political issues may be enough for most readers to put the real world aside and suspend disbelief. Harvard-trained attorney David Wolfe, a San Franciscan on the verge of a congressional campaign, has his plans derailed when his law school classmate (and one-time lover), Palestinian Hana Arif, asks him to defend her from charges that she led a conspiracy that assassinated dovish Israeli leader Amos Ben-Aron. Inspired by idealism and lingering passion, Wolfe jeopardizes his political future by taking the case. His suspicion that the suicide bombers who attacked Ben-Aron were aided by a security breach leads him to Israel and Lebanon. While Patterson (Conviction) attempts to portray the issues fairly, the introduction of a soap-operaish subplot undercuts his intended high purpose, and the resolution of the mystery is too predictable to surprise. 10-city author tour.
Customer Reviews
Exile
Probably the best yet of the Patterson books I have read. Even though the events of the book take place almost 20 years ago, the fundamental struggle between Palestine and Israel continues to this day and the events it describes seem very little different than the awfulness that continues there now. The story is a good one and kept my interest all the way through. I read most of it in a day
Diane
Patterson installs his principle characters into impossible situations from which they must try to extricate themselves while maintaining each's own morality and value. He has thoroughly researched his information in all of his books and especially for his book Exile, by interviewing at length both the Palestinian and Israel sides of this world altering question. and, as always, give us food for thought for months to come! This was one of my favorite and haunting books. No one knows how the Palestinians' and the Israels' war will end or if it ever will, but I feel that more people are now aware of the wrenching emotions when a people are torn away from their homes.
Not good at all
40 mins in and I finally gave up. 40 minutes and you learn very little about the characters. It was not interesting to me period