Maror

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His Howard Hughes is an even sicker, more sexually frustrated figure than the worst depictions of the one-time tech hero. In 1995 the young Avi finds his own summer of love as a small-time ecstasy dealer at a music festival in the Negev desert, as Yitzhak Rabin prepares to sign the Oslo peace accord. This is the first long-form novel I had read by the author and the short-stories I encountered were from the scifi/fantasy genre. As in everything else he does, Tidhar takes the concept of the political thriller to the nth degree: over the four decades of the book, the nation of Israel moves from a nascent country struggling to establish itself to a fully modern society that has moved away from the traditions (family, kibbutzim, loyal army service) and cohesion of its inception becoming, in the process, a thriving part of the international drug business. In amongst all the explosions, serial killings, double-crosses and other genre staples, though, I think the most painful I found the reading experience was when the narrative hit the nineties, where in Israel as so many places it seemed like there was a chance of peace, a new world no longer defined by the feuds and hatreds of the past.

But with Cohen it's a little different - he's a cop who's deeply tied in with the criminal underworld, but every act he takes or influences is utterly deliberate. Me han gustado mucho las diferentes voces que propone y la estructura en relatos con saltos temporales. Maror are the bitter herbs eaten at Passover, and there are scriptural references throughout the book, not least from Cohen himself, who spouts chapter and verse.They met years earlier when, ambushed in Southern Lebanon, Nir raced away with the only Jeep and Benny was taken captive. As a British reader, I have at least a sort of osmotic familiarity with most of the bands and shows and brands and films that get dropped into US crime stories to build a sense of place and particularity, but here some of the names are the same and others really aren't. Maror is the story of a war for a country's soul – a dazzling spread of narrative gunshots across four decades and three continents. A brutal, spanning history of Israel through the eyes of characters and their loose association with Cohen, a beat cop who rises through the ranks at the same time the country changes and evolves: you get to hear so many vital stories that provide an eye-opener into Israel's history if you're not too familiar, and the backdrop of the historical noir that gives the book its edge frames it around an ongoing Zodiac type mystery wrapped up with a premise that makes it ideal for fans of The Godfather or The White Tiger; or if you liked the style of William Boyd's The Romantic which tells a whole life in one book - this one goes one step further with its rich lead characters and tells the life of a whole country through their eyes; Cohen only really a side figure: we see how Cohen is operated around them moving back and forth between worlds like a ghost, showing up in the lives of a woman who snaps and murders her friend, and then intent on taking down a serial rapist.

That's where Avi has his bad trip and a vision of Cohen tells him he's the voice of the soul of Israel.He meets a sweet young female kibbutznik and has a sweet little love story with her, and then encounters Lior Goldin who's continuing his early drug-dealing career. Gripping, dynamic, page-turning and also enlightening, this has a distinct atmosphere and style of its own. Maror shows us the thieves, the tramps, the prostitutes, the violence, filth and corruption underlying the good behind the Zionist dream.

While some names were changed and dialogue is invented, most of the major players and the historical events really happened.Cohen is never our viewpoint character, we waft in and out of the stories of other cops, journalists, criminals, and in one notable segment an actress cum drill instructor cum drug dealer.