Description

Renowned journalist Ruth Margalit revisits 10 profiles of Israeli politicians, cultural figures, and iconoclasts spanning a decade of her reporting for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine to create a powerful mosaic of the clashing forces that have led to Israel’s current state.

To live in Israel today, Margalit writes, is to be either a whale or a Jonah-trying to make do in the belly of the whale. The profiles in this collection represent both: outsiders trying to make a life in a system designed against them, and insiders hatching plans and amassing power all while riding the twin waves of populism and jingoism.

Returning to these profiles from her current reality as a writer and mother living in Tel Aviv at a time of war, Margalit reexamines the texts in light of a transformed society and self, adding new updates and insights to journalistic portraits she has created over the course of a dozen years.

Incorporating perspectives of Israelis from all strata of society-Jews, Arabs, activists, artists, politicians, and academics alike-Margalit stitches an enlightening patchwork to help readers better understand the seemingly inscrutable politics of a nation in which so many have a deep and abiding interest.

Publisher Review

Captures the personal within the political, offering rare insight — Unholy Podcast, Hosted by Yonit Levi and Jonathan Freedland Margalit has given us a brilliant portrait of a tortured country in the throes of change. The questions tearing at Israel today are grave and existential, but the characters assembled here are so well drawn that they seem to come out of a family drama. It’s hard to imagine a better book on modern Israel — Dexter Filkins, author of The Forever War Margalit has a wonderful literary ear, a true reader’s sensibility, which shines through when she writes. . . [Her work] reaffirmed the notion that personal narratives can elicit the most powerful writing — Katia Bachko * Vela Magazine *