‘Important social issues are handled with insight and compassion…’

The Deadly Promise by Gilou Bareau. Published by Folrose

Book review by Elizabeth Stitt

· The Deadly Promise is so much more than an absorbing read — which it is. Important social issues such as dysfunctional families and the impact they have through generations, addiction, homelessness and, perhaps above all, racism and factionalism within religious communities are handled with insight and compassion.

The story centres around a group of 30-something mostly professionals living in London, drawn together by family connections or political views. The two main protagonists are Hepzibah, a Jewish pro-Palestinian journalist and her former brother in law Zach Peretz who grew up in a conventional South Manchester Sephardic community, whose beliefs and values he has largely laid to one side.

Despite not sharing the same world outlook, Hepzibah and Zach are thrown together by circumstance and a common goal of solving the sudden and shocking death of Abe Peretz — Zach’s brother and Hepzibah’s former husband. Both have the past and their upbringing to contend with and both seek refuge in addiction — wine for Hepzibah and cocaine for Zach.

Abe Peretz was a Jewish academic opposed to Zionism and one night, after addressing a Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting, loses his life on the way home. His death has a great impact on the many who loved him and the unravelling of the circumstances takes Zach and Hepzibah to Manchester, Tel Aviv and London.

Whilst on a visit to the family of Fawz, their Palestinian friend from London, they learn at first hand of the everyday difficulties and iniquities of Palestinian life — from the harassment of an elderly Palestinian man on a bus to the restrictions placed on the Palestinian community in repairing the damage caused to their homes by Israeli violence and the takeover of their homes by settlers.

Zach’s cocaine addiction is an important theme as it dictates his behaviour and his relationships with family and others. To say that this is a coming of age novel is not entirely accurate, but by the end, Zach is definitely a work in progress. He has become a more likeable and insightful figure than the thieving junkie he was initially portrayed as. The lifestyle and compulsions of drug addiction are laid bare authoritatively.

This is a book well worth engaging with, not just for its page-turning readability, but also for its examination of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the premise that to be opposed to Zionism is not to be anti-Semitic. To quote from the author’s preface: “Israel, made in the name of Jews, shames me. I am not alone. There are many thousands of Jews around the world who feel the same. We are a significant minority. We’re Jews who support Palestine and this novel is my way of showing why.”

A minor criticism — the book ends rather suddenly. What happened to Fawz and her family, for example? However, this should not deter the potential reader from an enjoyable and informative experience.