Refuge

Sami Michael's Refuge is an ambitious novel which attempts to do a great deal in a small amount of space. That Michael largely succeeds is a testimony to his great gifts as a novelist. The main flaw of the book is that Michael has perhaps too many main characters, and this dilutes the thrust of the novel, the momentum, and the reader's ability to respond to the plight of the characters. But on the upside, Michael is able to create a great deal of tension in this novel. He moves fluidly from the Israeli Jewish world, the world of Israeli Arabs, Palestinian Arabs, and every identity in between, and is completely at home in each. He tackles the thorny subject of sexual relations between Israeli Jews and Arabs, making it the fulcrum for his examination of Arab-Jewish relations. Violence, sex, and identity become entwined in interesting and novel ways in Refuge, surprising and even shocking the reader.

Sami Michael weaves the intricate and complex plot which is Refuge by introducing the reader to a large number of characters, all of whom have very complex identities. He tells of the Israeli Jew who was born in Iraq, and the Arab with Israeli citizenship who visits his cousins in a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The multiple layers of each of the numerous characters we meet succeed in opening the readers' eyes to the layers of complexity which are Israeli society.