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Collaborator of Bethlehem: Omar Yussef Series, Book 1
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*Starred Review* Omar Yussef is a schoolteacher in Bethlehem, struggling to teach history unfettered by politics. When a PLO soldier is murdered, and a Palestinian Christian is arrested for the crime (and accused of being a collaborator with the Israelis), Yussef launches his own investigation, convinced that the accused, a former student, is innocent. Yussef knows he is not a brave man ("What an old fool you are, scrambling about in a battle zone in your nice shoes"), but his determination to stand up for his friend outweighs the futility of his quest, even if it means jeopardizing his family. The premise of this gripping first novel by Time magazine's former Jerusalem bureau chief evokes that sense of mean-streets honor that drives so much crime fiction, but there is no sentimentality lurking beneath Rees' complex, uncompromising tale of a good man trapped in an untenable world. The plot unfolds with a tragic inevitability, but along the way, Rees captures the human spark of daily lives being led in totally polarized, soul-deadening conditions. Ideologically driven absurdity blocks Yussef's way from every direction, but he plods on in his nice shoes, determined to throw "the filth out of his own home with hopelessly insufficient tools." With the recent death of Israeli novelist Batya Gur, there is a very large gap to be filled in the crime fiction of the Middle East, and Rees seems poised to fill it. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Über den Autor
Matt Beynon Rees wurde in South Wales geboren. Bis vor kurzem war er der Jerusalemer Bürochef für die "Time", für die er weiterhin schreibt. Er spricht u.a. Arabisch und Hebräisch.
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The main character in this crime novel is Omar Yussef. He's been a history teacher in Bethlehem for many years and enjoys keeping up with his former students. When one of his former students, George Saba, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla, Louai Abdel Rahman, it comes as a shock for Omar Yussef. George Saba, a member of the Palestinian Christian minority faces the possibility of execution if he is not cleared of the charges.
The situation becomes more complex for Omar Yussef when another of his former students, Dima, the wife of the murdered man, is herself murdered. He begins to suspect the head of the local al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is the true collaborator. No one else is willing to stand up to the Martyrs' Brigade who seem to hold the real power in town. Yussef is on his own to investigate and find the truth.
The plot is very carefully devised. It's a first novel by Matt Beynon Rees who based the story on actual occurrences he covered as a journalist during the second Intifada. The story is part war story, part political thriller and a murder mystery. Omar Yussef becomes a hero not through his actions, but by keeping an open mind about the situations happening around him. The background of the action is interesting too: the conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Palestine.
The situation becomes more complex for Omar Yussef when another of his former students, Dima, the wife of the murdered man, is herself murdered. He begins to suspect the head of the local al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is the true collaborator. No one else is willing to stand up to the Martyrs' Brigade who seem to hold the real power in town. Yussef is on his own to investigate and find the truth.
The plot is very carefully devised. It's a first novel by Matt Beynon Rees who based the story on actual occurrences he covered as a journalist during the second Intifada. The story is part war story, part political thriller and a murder mystery. Omar Yussef becomes a hero not through his actions, but by keeping an open mind about the situations happening around him. The background of the action is interesting too: the conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Palestine.
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Format:Taschenbuch
Dies ist mein erstes Buch überhaupt, das ich über den palästinensischen Alltag gelesen habe. Schon deshalb war es für mich schon spannend, diese für mich doch fremde Kultur ansatzweise kennenzulernen. Die Krimigeschichte ist nett, aber an und für sich nicht sonderlich spannend und dient mehr als Stütze. Es ist ein anregendes Buch, das einem aber nicht den Schlaf raubt, absolut lesenswert. Wer jedoch einen spannenden oberflächlichen Thriller sucht, der wird hier nicht fündig.
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Very Strong Debut
2. Juli 2007
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
I've been waiting for years for the crime genre to enter the Arab world -- other than a handful by Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra, there's nothing out there (at least in English translation). So, it was with great anticipation I picked up Welsh journalist Rees' Bethlehem-set book starring middle-aged schoolteacher Omar Yussef. Fortunately, despite prose that gets a little too florid at times, and a rather clunky "mystery", the book largely succeeds in bringing the detective genre to a new setting. (A note of warning: those who do not want to face the reality of how the Israeli occupation of the West Bank negatively affects daily life will probably not want to read this. Similarly, those who do not want to face the reality of Palestinian factionalism, pervasive corruption, and intercinine bloodshed, will find this a trying read. All of these elements come to the fore and are critical to the plot, as Rees attempts to ground his story in the daily struggle of non-combatant Palestinians to live a normal life.)
The story begins with the betrayal of a Palestinian guerilla to an Israeli hit squad by an unseen Palestinian collaborator. At his funeral, his widow reveals a rather significant clue as to the identity of the titular collaborator to her former schoolteacher, Yussef. However, she soon turns up dead before her evidence can be reported to anyone. Meanwhile, another former student, a Christian who emigrated to Chile and recently returned, is accused of being the collaborator. Certain that his ex-student is innocent and being accused solely due to his religion, Yussef embarks on an amateur sleuthing quest to clear his name which puts him in direct conflict with the "Martyr's Brigade" militia which is the de facto power in town.
While on indefinite leave from his teaching position, the former alcoholic Yussef pokes and prods around Bethlehem and its Dehaisha refugee camp, piecing together little bits of information. The one major flaw in the plotting is that he makes a very major erroneous assumption about the clue the widow gives him, and anyone who's lived in the Arab world will spot it immediately. This wouldn't be that bad, except that Yussef spends a good portion of the book berating others for making assumptions... However, on the whole, he is an engaging character and the book does an excellent job of showing why those who wish peace and follow their conscience have a rough time of it in the Arab-Israeli conflict and how hysteria and mob rule generally carry the day. I'll definitely be reading the next in the series.
The story begins with the betrayal of a Palestinian guerilla to an Israeli hit squad by an unseen Palestinian collaborator. At his funeral, his widow reveals a rather significant clue as to the identity of the titular collaborator to her former schoolteacher, Yussef. However, she soon turns up dead before her evidence can be reported to anyone. Meanwhile, another former student, a Christian who emigrated to Chile and recently returned, is accused of being the collaborator. Certain that his ex-student is innocent and being accused solely due to his religion, Yussef embarks on an amateur sleuthing quest to clear his name which puts him in direct conflict with the "Martyr's Brigade" militia which is the de facto power in town.
While on indefinite leave from his teaching position, the former alcoholic Yussef pokes and prods around Bethlehem and its Dehaisha refugee camp, piecing together little bits of information. The one major flaw in the plotting is that he makes a very major erroneous assumption about the clue the widow gives him, and anyone who's lived in the Arab world will spot it immediately. This wouldn't be that bad, except that Yussef spends a good portion of the book berating others for making assumptions... However, on the whole, he is an engaging character and the book does an excellent job of showing why those who wish peace and follow their conscience have a rough time of it in the Arab-Israeli conflict and how hysteria and mob rule generally carry the day. I'll definitely be reading the next in the series.
13 von 13 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
West Bank story . . .
31. Juli 2007
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Though I'm not much for crime fiction, I'm a reader of books about the Middle East, and this mystery set in Bethlehem on the West Bank caught my eye. At first I didn't think I'd like it, but I was quickly drawn into the twists and turns of plot, a few of them shocking, and felt I'd been immersed in Arab-Israeli political tensions in a way I'd never been before. Welsh-born author Rees, a journalist with Time magazine in Jerusalem, chooses as his central character an Arab history teacher at a UN-run girls school for refugees. A man with a comb-over and a mid-life crisis - and unqualified as a detective - he attempts to uncover the identity of an informer responsible for the killing of a young resistance fighter, which has led to the false arrest of a close friend.
For me, the final solving of this mystery was not so interesting as the portrayal of daily life in a world where the rule of law has been subverted by armed insurgents and an embrace of martyrdom, all set against the presence of an occupying army with considerably superior fire power. Occasions to kill or be killed multiply in this environment, whether as the victim of revenge, dishonor, mob violence, suicide bombing, or cross-fire between combatants. Framing all this within the conventions of the detective story makes this novel something close to creative nonfiction. Meanwhile, as the sole voice of reason and decency crying in this wilderness, the detective Omar Yussef becomes someone you admire for his courage - though it may seem foolish at times. I hope Rees' book is the first of a series; I look forward to reading more.
For me, the final solving of this mystery was not so interesting as the portrayal of daily life in a world where the rule of law has been subverted by armed insurgents and an embrace of martyrdom, all set against the presence of an occupying army with considerably superior fire power. Occasions to kill or be killed multiply in this environment, whether as the victim of revenge, dishonor, mob violence, suicide bombing, or cross-fire between combatants. Framing all this within the conventions of the detective story makes this novel something close to creative nonfiction. Meanwhile, as the sole voice of reason and decency crying in this wilderness, the detective Omar Yussef becomes someone you admire for his courage - though it may seem foolish at times. I hope Rees' book is the first of a series; I look forward to reading more.
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Hanging on to humanity
1. Juli 2007
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
"The Collaborator of Bethlehem" is an astounding book in many ways. Above all, it's an insightful look at what happens to a society that has lost control of its daily life--when violent force becomes stronger than reason and order. Most people in this kind of situation hunker down and try to make themselves invisible until things get better. A few see opportunities in crisis to gain at the expense of others. Only a few refuse to surrender their humanity and morals and shun collaboration with disorder. Matt Beynon Rees' protagonist, Omar Yussef, is one of the rare breed in the third category. He is the anti-collaborationist, who lives in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, where collaboration is seen by the population as a means of survival. For some it's collaboration with the Israelis to control Palestinian militants, for most others it's a collaboration of silence that allows corruption and violence to flourish in the name of Palestinian autonomy.
Omar Yussef, a free-thinking Palestinian school teacher abhors all that has happened to his very oppressed people, but refuses to give up on hope for the future, and surprisingly, refuses to blame the Israelis for all Palestinian problems. Through his protagonist, the author also expounds convincingly on how the Israelis have condemned themselves to an unending conflict with their neighbors by continuously working to destabilize Palestinian community and family life which inevitably produces more violence directed against the Israelis themselves.
On top of everything else, "The Collaborator of Bethlehem" is a genuinely good police mystery that holds the reader's attention from page one. This is a very intelligent book, clearly demonstrating Rees' understanding of the Middle East and the complexities the Palestinian/Israeli relationship. You have to wonder whether it would be possible for an Arab or an Israeli to have written such an honest and insightful book. We should all be happy that this is published as the first in a series of mysteries. Bring on number two.
Omar Yussef, a free-thinking Palestinian school teacher abhors all that has happened to his very oppressed people, but refuses to give up on hope for the future, and surprisingly, refuses to blame the Israelis for all Palestinian problems. Through his protagonist, the author also expounds convincingly on how the Israelis have condemned themselves to an unending conflict with their neighbors by continuously working to destabilize Palestinian community and family life which inevitably produces more violence directed against the Israelis themselves.
On top of everything else, "The Collaborator of Bethlehem" is a genuinely good police mystery that holds the reader's attention from page one. This is a very intelligent book, clearly demonstrating Rees' understanding of the Middle East and the complexities the Palestinian/Israeli relationship. You have to wonder whether it would be possible for an Arab or an Israeli to have written such an honest and insightful book. We should all be happy that this is published as the first in a series of mysteries. Bring on number two.
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