Five Leaves Publications

Book details

In British-occupied Palestine after World War 1, a beleaguered London painter and his American wife witness the murder of an Orthodox Jew. She is drawn into an affair with the British investigating officer, while he seeks solace in painting. Each had come to Palestine to escape grief, and had to confront the political and person issues they had left behind.

Reviews of the American edition:

"Wilson is a talented writer with a gift for story, scene and character." - The Boston Globe

"A Palestine Affair is hard to put down. .. (it) echoes its modernist predecessors: Foster’s A Passage to India, Conrad's The Secret Agent..." - San Francisco Chronicle

"A story that tautens the sinuous strands of (the) period into a lethal knot." - New York Times Book Review

"Worth reading? You bet it is!" - Saul Bellow

" A swift little mystery-romance… Crisply written… Wonderfully rich in period detail and atmosphere…" - Seattle Weekly

About the Author

Jonathan Wilson was born in London but has lived in the USA since 1976. His previous two books, Schoom and The Hiding Room were published by Secker and Penguin. Jonathan Wilson writes regularly for the New Yorker and the New York Times Book Review. He has a Guggenheim Fellowship. A Palestine Affair was published in the USA by Pantheon/Anchor, a division of Random House.