The Search for Sana: The Life and Death of a Palestinian

Richard Zimler takes leave from his wonderful Kabbalistic fiction in The Search for Sana, and leads us into a living embodiment of the Middle East conflict in this story about two women, one Palestinian, one Israeli. Sana and Helena were brought up together as neighbours and close friends, and kept in touch all their lives. Zimler recounts a meeting with Sana, which leads him on a quest to uncover the life histories of the two women, and on the way exploring the tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, and the terrible conflicts which tear families and friends apart and lead to major acts of carnage, whether sponsored by the state or by "terrorists".

The book takes the form of a personal investigation by Zimler into a death and the reasons for it, and we follow him through a winding quest, meeting a wide range of people along the way in many different locations. Evidence is uncovered bit by bit, and as the story unfolds we find ourselves drawn into a place where nothing is as it seems, and the denouement is a shocking interpretation of the attack on New York's Twin Towers.

Zimler shows his customary desire to understand motives and to get beneath the skin of alienated and disaffected people - for peace and reconciliation can only be achieved through understanding, as has been demonstrated in South Africa, Rwanda and Northern Ireland. This book shows that the roots of atrocities can usually be traced back to acts of acts of smaller-scale injustice. So often, a personal story is more effective than a political diatribe and this book has the potential to enlighten anyone who has a knee-jerk reaction to the Arab/Israeli conflict.

fact and fiction (2/2 people found this helpful)

Richard Zimler's, The Search for Sana, is a most extraordinary book. Part fact, part fiction, it's difficult at times to unravel which is which. The two main characters around which Zimler's plot revolves, are symbolic of the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians. He uses them to explore the issues on both sides. For anyone who has any connection with the issues involved, this could make an uncomfortable and controversial read.
The only part of the book which seemed somewhat far-fetched was the final tie-in with 9/11 at the very end of the postscript. The rest is all too believable.

The Search for Sana: The Life and Death of a Palestinian

Richard Zimler

Reader Reviews:

Valuable insights into the roots of the Arab/Israeli conflict (1/1 people found this helpful)

fact and fiction (2/2 people found this helpful)

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