The Jerusalem Diamond

'The Jerusalem Diamond' is a brilliantly written and truly insightful book. The story of the main character's involement with a particular diamond is woven in between flashbacks to the past. This makes the book exciting and historical - combining fact and fiction. A wonderful book.

Harry Hopeman is the main character of "Jerusalem Diamond". Like in other Gordon books, he is a jew. An american jew, very wise, rich, he trades diamonds. His past, or the past of his family is glorious, but even so, it is also misty. In the plot, Hopeman travels to Israel, the jewish nation, to verify the autenticity and, if possible, to buy a historical diamond that arises the interests of the three major religions: christianism, judaism and islamism. Arriving at Jerusalem, Hopeman sees himself pressed by people representing the three religions, that view possession of the diamond as a way to get better over the other two. Hopeman's religious culture is put against his journey in the Land, where people breathe religion mixed with armed fighting; and he gets involved in a love affair with a local woman, widow to an ideal. Despite all these things, he finds a perfect diamond... when what he was looking for was one with a very visible damage. Jerusalem is a precious city to three cultures. And in this city Hopeman finds a diamond... HIS diamond. The plot in the book is very interesting, but the only problem with Noah Gordon's books is that they get pale if compared to his masterpiece, "The physician". In "Jerusalem diamond", the historical chapters seem a little bit undeveloped, and the main plot twists so much that sometimes the reader gets lost. Anyway, a fast book to read, and very pleasant. One won't regret the purchase.