1930s/1960s – California/Mississippi
From a rough section of Los Angeles during the late Depression years, to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s in the South, this novel is a searing portrayal of one family trapped by alcoholism and another living the typical middle class life. A true American story told through the eyes of two girls, best friends, separated by the internment camps of World War II.
1948 – Israel
Is this the hour of destiny promised by the ancient prophecies or the time of destruction?
Rabbi Lebowitz of Jerusalem’s Old City has waited a lifetime for this moment. No Jew has held the key to the Gate of Zion since AD 70. Yet on May 14, 1948, the day of Israel’s statehood, the British will turn that key—the symbol of his hope for the nation—over to him.
But even before the British evacuate, full-scale fighting breaks out between the Arabs and Jews. Five Middle Eastern nations gather around the tiny country to divide it up among themselves. Caught in the middle, the native Palestinians flee, clogging the roads in front of the incoming armies.
Is there any hope for peace? for stopping the bloodshed? Haganah leader Moshe Sachar must make a bold move—one that could cost him his life but means life or death for his people.
When Moshe rescues an injured Arab girl, Rachel, his wife, must decide: Should she risk revealing the secrets of her past to reach an enemy’s heart? Especially one who says she hates all Jews?
1948 – Israel
The situation is desperate. Only a miracle can save them now. But will it come too late?
It’s Passover eve, and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem is being starved into submission. Arab forces hold the only road into the Old City—the village of Kastel and the narrow, twisting, rocky pass of Bab el Wad.
If Haganah leader Moshe Sachar and his men can’t capture and hold the pass tonight, long enough for the Jewish Agency’s food convoy to get through, people will die.
As Moshe approaches Kastel, he has no idea that his beloved Rachel will have to make her own dangerous journey—through the Arab stronghold of Sheikh Jarrah. Or that their baby, Tikvah, will be fighting for her life at Hadassah Hospital. As the Mufti vows to drive all Jews into the sea, David and Ellie Meyer search the Mediterranean for a freighter loaded with weapons for the Muslim Jihad. But will this last-ditch effort come in time to save the Jewish nation?
1948 – Israel
A nation will stand or fall . . . and it’s all up to one World War II fighter ace.
The Old City of Jerusalem is under siege in February 1948. Food and fuel are scarce. Weapons with which to defend the Jewish Quarter are even more so. The U.S. arms embargo against the Jews is still in effect, even though the British openly sell weapons to the Arabs. The Jewish nation needs a miracle.
David Meyer is given a dangerous assignment—to hire pilots and buy war-surplus planes that could fly to Palestine the instant statehood is declared. It could cost him his U.S. citizenship, and it would mean leaving Ellie, his bride, in harm’s way.
Worse, the British and the Arab secret operative Montgomery seem to know his every move. Even Haganah leader Moshe Sachar, who has just wed the beautiful Rachel Lubetkin, becomes the target of an evil conspiracy.
When David signed up for the war, he hadn’t signed up to carry the weight of a nation. Especially when betrayal swirls in the very air. . .
1948 – Israel
She survived the Holocaust at great personal cost. But will her past now destroy her?
It’s January 1948. After suffering the horrors of years in a Nazi concentration camp, Rachel Lubetkin has at last come home to Jerusalem . . . and the family who thought she was dead. But the mark on her arm has also marked her heart. Will her secrets, if revealed, discredit her among her own people? And at a time of great danger, when she so desperately wants to help?
British soldiers stand idly by while Arabs attack Jewish transports in the besieged Old City. Moshe Sachar, archaeologist by day and secret blockade runner by night, determines to fight for the ancient promises. But he can’t shake the vision of the beautiful young woman he rescued from the sea.
The very same Jewess that Gerhardt, a former Nazi, vows to find . . . to make her pay.
1947 – Middle East
Evil circles closer, threatening even those who survived the Holocaust.
It’s November 29, 1947. The streets of Jerusalem ring with celebration as the British Mandate of Palestine is carved into Arab and Jewish states. Politicians promise peace, but those who remember the prophecies know the truth.
When photojournalist Ellie Warne snaps pictures of some ancient scrolls, she unwittingly becomes the target of a sinister plan. Whom can she trust? David Meyer, a decorated American war pilot, who seems more comfortable among the stars than on earth with her? Or the scholarly Jew, Moshe Sachar, who hides from commitment behind his studies but says he loves her?
As everything she believes is challenged, Ellie must decide whether to risk her life—and her heart—for a people she has just met.
1950s – Wisconsin/Michigan
“What’s it like having an old man who’s a saint?” The question came from the depths of Romey Guttner’s troubled soul. It was as honest as the hot sun that beat down on him and his best friend, Lowell, as they picked beans that unforgettable summer in the late fifties. They were just boys, one the son of the town’s pillar of faith and one the neglected child of a man whose anger spilled onto everyone in his path. Despite their disparate upbringings, Romey and Lowell were like brothers, inseparable in their pursuit of adventure. But events were brewing that would force them to confront the reality of their differences for the first time.
