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Lone Wolf in Jerusalem    by Ehud Diskin Amazon.com order for
Lone Wolf in Jerusalem
by Ehud Diskin
Order:  USA  Can
Greenleaf, 2018 (2018)
Softcover, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Barbara Lingens

Israel, the sought-after homeland of the Jews, was born in strife. Lone Wolf in Jerusalem tells a very sad tale of the years immediately following World War II. Many Holocaust survivors, already weakened from their ordeal in Europe, make their way to Israel only to be turned away by the British. This creates much resentment in those who wanted to see the immigrants accepted in their new home, and underground groups form to thwart the British, resulting in killings on both sides.

This is the story of David, who was born in Minsk and who loses his family shortly after the arrival of the Germans. He becomes part of a resistance group, where he learns how to defend himself and destroy others. Arriving in Jerusalem, he finds a kind of war where he expected peace. So he decides to 'kill the one who comes to kill you.' Since he does not join any of the other resistance groups he becomes the lone wolf.

David is a very interesting character. Because of his great loss and because he is young and strong, he has programmed himself to kill. A woman who is quite knowledgeable about human emotions points out that he has other choices and also tells him he should never kill just because the victim is 'on the other side.' It is almost unbearable to watch David purposely set himself up to kill time after time. Even his beautiful lover, a young woman who has been horribly harmed, tries to become an accomplice of his so she too can find revenge. The first settlers of Israel had a truly horrific start, and this novel provides a painful description of it all.

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