"There are so many truths. Which one do you want?"
Rachel, a pre-med student from a Jewish family, doesn't think much about Israel until she meets Michael, a Palestinian doctor in New York on a fellowship.She is attracted to his strength and passion for helping his people. He sees her as a recruit to his cause.
Drawn together by their differences, their unlikely romance will force them to confront pre-existing loyalties, and to uncover truths buried under a lifetime of lies.
Children of Lies is a fast-moving story of two people in love, trapped in a political maelstrom
Assessment:
Plot: Lerner delivers a fast-paced and well-researched love story set against the turmoil of the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Prose: The author creates effective analogies and insightful observations into human emotion and behavior, as well as the hypnotic power of charismatic personalities. Lerner's prose offers nimble transitions between the love story and more sociological content, balancing the two elements with poise.
Originality: A love story against an environment of political and social upheaval has been staged before, yet Lerner details the circumstances of this particular conflict and these lovers from different ideological backgrounds with power and grace.
Character Development: Lerner succeeds in creating multifaceted protagonists, effectively establishing them as both figures who love freely, regardless of their circumstances, and as individuals who are caught on opposite sides of a seemingly unbridgeable conflict.
Date Submitted: June 07, 2017
This beautifully written and cunningly constructed novel is that rare thing: A transporting piece of commercial fiction that is morally and politically complex without being the least bit preachy or doctrinaire. Call it "a thinking woman's love story." So many books with an intense romance at their heart insult their readers with cliche situations and hackneyed plot devices. Not Children of Lies, which takes some surprising turns before its breathtaking conclusion. Its characters are finely etched and authentic and their thoughts and actions believable, and the topics it covers (secular Jews' relationship with Mideast politics, for starters) couldn't be more relevant. I hope to read more from Susan Lerner, who has a clear command of her subject matter and many more stories to tell.
