Jeffrey Goldberg’s remarkable book “Prisoners: A Tale of Friendship and Terror” is out in paperback. The book was listed as among 2006's best books by the New York Times,
When it was published in hardcover in October 2006, it had a different subtitle: “A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide.” The new subtitle better reflects the undercurrent of conflicting emotions and conclusions in the book.
Here is an excerpt from the Publishers Weekly Starred Review of the book:
[T]his memoir of the author, an American-bred Zionist, and his 15-year relationship with a Palestinian insurgent is bound to have detractors, in part because New Yorker
Goldberg's book travels from Long Island to
Goldberg grew up in a leftist, non-religious family, went to a socialist Zionist summer camp and, after attending the University of Pennsylvania, made aliyah to Israel, where he served at Ketziot, the large Israeli prison operated during the first intifada. Later he returned to
I could have said: I’m here because I believe with perfect faith in the catechisms of solutionism, the American national religion, which holds that for every intractable problem there is a logical and available answer. I could have said: I am here in search of the secret afflictions of the Palestinian heart. I am here exploring the contradictions of Jewish power. I am here seeking the elimination of ambiguity. I’m looking for the bridge that will carry me across the black hole of cognition that separates Arab and Jew. I’m here to quiet the conflict in my heart. I’m here because I’m alive to hope. I’m here in search of the key to all mythologies. I’m here because I’m a fucking idiot.
Jeffrey Goldberg will be speaking this Thursday evening (February 7) at 7:30 p.m. at Sinai Temple in
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