Books from Egypt — The Book Roads

Alaa Al Aswany

An Israeli family gathers for the holidays, but beneath the familiar rituals lie old resentments, unspoken fears, and questions about the meaning of home. Amotz Yaari, a successful engineer, and his wife, Daniela, find their carefully ordered lives disrupted by a family crisis that sends Daniela travelling to Africa to visit her widowed brother-in-law. Meanwhile, their son is serving in the Israeli army, and the family struggles to reconcile its private concerns with the realities of military service and political conflict. Moving between domestic life and distant landscapes, Friendly Fire examines the fragile bonds that hold families together and the ways war infiltrates even the most intimate relationships.

2009