Waking Lions

The basic story sounded interesting but unfortunately gets bogged down in excessive character development. Writing is excellent but story is very, very slow. Interesting and surprising ending. Not recommended if you like fast paced fiction.

This novel opens with a most eye catching line: “He’s thinking that the moon is the most beautiful he has ever seen when he hits the man” and within seconds we know that this is not a physical event, the protagonist has actually run someone over.

Dr Eitan Green is a man under pressure whose work situation has been problematical of late and with a new SUV he decides to clear his head and put the car through its paces in the middle of the night, on his way home from a particularly taxing day working at the hospital. It is on the dirt tracks that the unfortunate encounter takes place. Eitan gets out of the car to assess the damage to the human being and notes that there is no damage to his car. He determines life is ebbing away from Asum, who is lying broken and bleeding on the ground and in an instant Eitan is back in his vehicle and roaring off, leaving no apparent trace.

Haunted by nightmares once he is back in the bosom of his family, his life has of course shifted and can never be the same.

But he has left an item at the scene, there are consequences to come. He is forced into unanticipated action, blackmailed to act, otherwise his deed will be made public. He is ensnared and finds himself in a situation that is complex, illegal and fraught – yet he himself can make a difference to many human beings…. It is an interesting conundrum that the author has invented.

Who is Eitan and would someone with more backbone have confessed to his unintentional killing? What kind of husband is he in actual fact? The moral issues of his actions are at the heart of this novel, and the effects of a snap decision come to haunt him and his family. Breaking point hovers in the murky distance, there is an edginess that anticipates everything falling apart. How will the novel conclude?

It is the uncertainty of where things will end that kept me glued to the book, as there are at times subtle, at times seismic shifts that take the plot in a variety of interesting trajectories.

The writing style for me, however, didn’t work so well. It is a dense and meandering style that relishes exhaustive detail, which at times becomes actually rather exhausting to read. This may in part lie with the translation but there are descriptive inserts which just detract from the story, they feel slotted in and at times quite irrelevant (although in one of the off-piste ponderings you do find out what a Dreidel is!).

The dusty and barren nature of the land around Beersheba certainly comes to life in the novel, and the heat is an extra dimension that adds to the growing tension of the storyline.

It is a book that has introduced me to the issue of migrant Africans – Eritreans in the book – who seek refuge in Israel. Also featured are the Bedouin, who clearly are for the most part held in poor esteem and because I know little about this, parts of the storyline were I am sure lost on me. Which then left me wondering how much research one should do as a reader to further inform oneself about the issues raised in a novel…. Yet J K Rowling manifestly brings the world of Harry Potter to life, there is no research to be done there, and perhaps Gundar-Goshen too might have added a few insightful paragraphs to really evoke the social setting in this book.

I will be interested to see what the author tackles in her next book.

Others have summarize the story, and it's compelling for the sociologic background and relationship of Arab groups (Eritrians and to some extent Bedouins) two middle class Israeli society. The plot is interesting but the development is quite clumsy. That and the fact that the translation was clumsy as well could have been served by a good American editor.

I truly enjoyed this book. THe premise of the story is very intriguing and kept me captivated until the end. I think this would make a great miniseries. I don't want to tell too much but I also thought it was well written as well.

This is a fairly difficult book to digest unless one is familiar with Israel. Even then the book has a tendency to drag on. As somebody who happens to be familiar with Israel and Israeli society I consider the credibility of this book to be marginal at best. It does represent an interesting effort to write a different kind of book. Unfortunately it is only partially successful.

I bought this book because of the positive reviews of the story and writing. I was surprised how poorly it was written.The story could have been interesting. I found the writing to be banal, predictable and pretentious. For example, on page 230: "The baby's skin had a repulsive blue tinge. The color itself wasn't, repulsive. People buy sheets that color. And bedspreads And dishes (with capital A s (etc), This is one of numerous examples that made me groan. I was sorry, sadly to say, that I bought it.

‘Waking Lions’ strengths are

1 Interesting social comment on the little publicised issue of marginalised illegal immigrants in Israeli society
2 Dealing with moral dilemma, not only the major dilemma of Eitan Green’s response to the hit and run accident, but frequent deep observation and examination of the factors behind our moral and behavioural dispositions
3 Character study – readers can readily identify with each character vividly portrayed. Eitan Green is recognisably pliable, Liat blissfully and surprisingly unaware. Sirkit is majestic, living by determined cunning, untroubled by ethic, desperate to survive, utterly pragmatic, but also capable of growing roses
4 Its suspense as a thriller

The corresponding weakness is the implausibility of the plot which is too often more contrived than natural, leading to non-credible situations. But this is a small price to pay for the study of human nature Ayelet Gundat-Goshen offers.

What an amazing book this is, a story so wonderfully written and told. One might consider WAKING LIONS a crime novel, and while a crime is involved here --- a few of them, in fact --- the tale is so much broader that it cannot be jammed comfortably into any particular genre. Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, the author of this stunning piece, is a psychologist, short film screenwriter and award-winning author in her native Israel. WAKING LIONS, her first work to be published in the United States, is a stunning introduction, with the translation by Sondra Silverstein from the Hebrew illuminating her wonderful prose.

Gundar-Goshen’s literary skill set would be enough by itself to make reading this book worthwhile, but the plotting and characterization are unforgettable as well. Eitan Green is the tip of the spear in WAKING LIONS. He has a wonderful life on the surface, working as a neurosurgeon at a small Israeli hospital while living with his wife, Liat --- a Police Inspector --- and children in a comfortable home. Eitan chafes inwardly, however. His transfer to the hospital was not voluntary, and while life in a small town has its benefits (lack of traffic being one), he misses the big city. While driving home late one night after an extended hospital shift, his car hits and kills an African migrant. Eitan stops immediately, but after ascertaining that the victim’s injuries are mortal, he continues driving home. His reasoning is that his family’s lives (and, of course, his own) shouldn’t be changed by his momentary and careless blunder.

Eitan has no idea what the world has in store for him. Sirkit, the victim’s widow, appears at his house the next day, with the wallet he left behind at the accident scene. In exchange for her silence, Sirkit forces Eitan to run what becomes a clandestine medical clinic for refugees, which he stocks by misappropriating supplies from his own hospital. Eitan is soon lying to everyone --- his wife, his children, his colleagues --- as he works two shifts (or more) several days a week to fulfill his official and unofficial obligations. Something has to give, and something eventually does, when Liat, who is assigned to investigate the hit-and-run death of the refugee, suddenly obtains a confession from someone who, as Eitan knows, could not have committed the crime. Liat, meanwhile, detects a change in her husband and believes that he is being unfaithful, even as he slowly finds himself, against all odds, being attracted to Sirkit.

A major shift then takes place about halfway through the book that puts everyone’s actions, including Eitan’s, in a new light. The change has a ripple effect that continues outward through the story’s conclusion. Anything but a tragic ending seems all but inevitable, and tragic it might be. For some, anyway. But not for everyone.

Anyone who loves the magic of the printed word should read WAKING LIONS. It is a dark story, full of cruelty, greed and betrayal, but also is shot through with redemption and perseverance. Gundar-Goshen has earned, and deserves, a worldwide audience, and this magnificent novel may well be the vehicle for that.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Dr Eitan Green is a highly skilled neurologist and a happily married family man. After an argument of principle with his hospital professor – a man who up until this point Eitan had much admired - he leaves his prestigious city post to take up work in the isolated desert region of Beersheba. There, one dark night, a fateful car accident leads him into close contact with an underclass of illegal Eritrean refugees. “He had allowed himself a moment to feel sorry for them and already his empathy had become uncontrollable, a monster of malignant guilt pursuing him relentlessly.” In no time at all, his perfect life starts to unravel...

Ayelet Gundar-Goshen understands the psychology and the minutiae of relationships very well. As well as examining the moral ambiguities of Eitan’s situation, she pays equal attention to the impact of its repercussions on his wife, Liat, and her insights strike many a chord. But then the author seems to lose momentum and treads water for a while as though she is deciding which way to go with her story. How often this is the case with an initially compelling premise that forces the novelist into something of a creative cul-de-sac. Should the writer go for the inexorable dead-end conclusion or contrive a three-point turn? Cleverly, she does neither and thus makes her book even more thought-provoking.

Following on from Ms Gundar-Goshen’s overly quirky debut One Night, Markovitch, this is an unexpectedly good read. The maturity, insight and compassion of Waking Lions demonstrates her ability in no uncertain terms and Sondra Silverston’s translation from the Hebrew is flawless. This could – and should - win awards.

While driving in the desert at night, distracted by the most beautiful moon he has ever seen, Dr. Eitan Green hits a man. A brain surgeon, he knows the man will not live. He makes the decision to drive on, leaving the dying man. He won't risk his career by reporting the accident.

He does not know he left behind a clue or that the dying man's wife Sirkit witnessed the accident. She blackmails the doctor: he will spend his nights at a makeshift clinic caring for her fellow Eritrean refugees.

A man who prefers to live in order, who shuns the blood and shit of human frailty, the doctor is thrust into the dirty, ugly side of life. But as he works with the tall, proud woman, he comes to admire her skill and to secretly lust for her.

Dr. Green's wife is a detective on the case of the hit-and-run victim. She struggles with her husband's absence, sure he is not cheating on her, yet sensing something is not right.

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, beautifully translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston, is a remarkable novel that probes the complexity of our moral choices. People do bad things or good things, for bad reasons or good ones, culminating in earned or unearned outcomes. It is about power shifts, the prejudice between Israelis, Bedouins, and African Eritreans, the refugee experience, the mystery of never really knowing one another, and how the privileged class can turn away from the uncomfortable and live in a sterile world of their own making.

The story is told by an omniscient narrator who knows the thoughts of the characters, without dialogue. Twists create an unexpectedly propulsive, action, complication.

I received acomplimentary ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

This book shifts deftly between levels of narrative. Some parts are as tight as a thriller (which to some extent, this book is--hence I will say nothing about the plot). Other parts are poetic to the point where you feel you are floating in an ocean of sensation. Through it all, Gundar-Goshen explores the complexity of relationships among people thrown unwillingly together, and the tensions of race and class among many sectors of Israel. The Beduins don't come out very well in the story, but the Eritreans take on a rich inner life as the book goes on. By the end, I felt, the thriller and and inner exploration of souls merge satisfyingly.

I read this book straight through.
Then I imagined the memories as flashbacks and the conclusion as the end of a TV mini series or movie.
Finally, I thought about who would get my copy of the book next.

70,000 to 100,000 people have illegally entered Israel in the past ten years -- mostly African refugees. This is a fast-moving mystery involving some of them, and the Israeli doctor who is pulled into their world.

I picked up this book because of a recommendation from the Wall St. Journal. I am always in the market for new, interesting books that are outside of my usual mysteries and biographies.

Eitan, the neurosurgeon, makes a fatal mistake one night and has to live with the consequences.

Why I liked this book:
* the unusual story of life in Israel, plus the story of immigrants in Israel. This is a world that I know nothing about.
* the moral dilemmas can be applied to anyone
* the character studies. How well can we really know someone? How well can we understand their motivations?

This book made me think and I always like books that do that.

I recommend this book.

A remarkable book: a thriller that also made me think - and feel - and stayed with me long after I finished reading it!

Although set in Israel, with just a few details changed, the book could easily have been set in the US, or almost any developed country, with its issues of illegal immigrants and race relations, guilt and atonement. And Gundar-Goshen manages to make all sides seem real, with three-dimensional people. Even the security guard is worried about what color napkins to pick for his upcoming wedding.

I checked the book out of the library, and like it so much I bought it to have to lend to friends.

Very highly recommended!

Shows the duplicity of people The doctor had to leave a comfortable hospital job and take a job in a hospital in the outskirts of Israel because he exposed a bribery on the part of his superior Yet he killed a man and he remains silent
Was it because Eritrean lives don't matter?
This could have been a dream .The doctor returned to his normal life, buying groceries The story is graphic with sexual undertones . Yes I would recommend this book and perhaps re name it Waking Tigers

I loved this book... for its current and very significant main story, for the way the author weaved in other stories, and for the suspense that kept me turning page after page. Moving from a hit and run accident into so many difficult lives, awakening our own lions, the story urges us to see each other as individual people and not the groups from which we come. Highly recommended! Really the best book I have read in some time and one that will stay with me not only for the characters but also for the dilemmas to be pondered.

This book was written by an Israeli author and translated from the Hebrew. It has a somewhat unbelievable plot about a doctor who is blackmailed after killing someone in a hit and run accident. The book is interesting but unbelievably tedious in spots.

(Really 3.5 stars) Book deals with complex issues, but loses momentum in the middle section from way too much psychological navel gazing. (Author, as am I, was trained as a psychologist) Would have been much better if the complexities and motivations of the Bedouins and Eritreans who propel the suspenseful final section were brought in a lot earlier.

I thought this book was excellent. It was about the human experience and the decisions people make. These are real people doing the best they can within their limitations and their flaws. It's about being vulnerable. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, making the wrong decision for the right reasons, and not foreseeing the consequences.

I found this book absorbing. The book gives one a lot to think about. Although the book was a good read, in some places it dragged. Good book about the refugee problem in Israel. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book for my honest review.

A deep, dark, dramatic novel about the enormous gulfs between individuals and peoples; about the impossibility of understanding across the razorwire of privilege and contempt; about the lies we tell ourselves, and the subtle scent of love that arises like a rose in the desert. Tense and magnificent.

A very interesting read. Loved reading a book set in my area, about a person working in the hospital I work, dealing with some of the issues I deal with. Only differently. As much as I loved the aforementioned, I found some of the medical doctor's reactions absolutely not believable, not possible nor real. Really bothered me.

WAKING LIONS, is unquestionably a beautifully written book. I, however, could not get past about 35% of the text. I found the VERY LONG NARRATIONS, although they were insightful, were boring. I like a bit more dialogue. I think the development is predictable.

I loved this book and selected it for book group. The members liked the story and it gave us quite a bit to discuss. It is not an easy story and gave us insight into the refugee situation in Israel.