The Human Scale: A Novel

(Paperback, Large Print Edition)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Lawrence Wright at the height of his powers. Centers around the newfoundand forcedrelationship between a Palestinian American FBI agent and a hard-line Israeli cop, working together uneasily to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza. Moving, thrilling, with extraordinary scope, it does for Palestine and Israel what Gorky Park did years ago for Russia. In the vein of John le Carr and Graham Greene, this is the rare novel that manages to entertain, educate, and deeply move the reader.

Tony Malik is a half-Irish, half-Arab New Yorkbased FBI agent, specializing in money flowing from drug and arms deals. The novel opens in shocking fashion, with Malik seriously injured by a terrorist-planted bomb. During his lengthy recuperative process, his life changes radically. A long-term relationship ends, and his job is on the verge of being taken away from him. During this period he learns more about his roots and becomes interested in his father's past and familyhis father came to America years ago from Palestine. Malik decides to make a trip to his father's homeland to attend the wedding of his niece, whom he has never met. As a result of his plans, he is given a simple assignment by his boss at the FBI, partly to see how well he can still do his job. That simple assignment becomes anything but simple.

Reviews

"In this lacerating novel, Wright draws on years of experience in Israel and Palestine to forge a layered tale of intrigue and betrayal. It is a novel of hard truths; a bitter indictment of the corrupt, cruel leaders on both sides who have caused immeasurable suffering." Geraldine Brooks; Pulitzer Prize winning novelist

"Wrights The Human Scale, set in Hebron, is a furnace of conflict between Israeli settlers and Palestinian terrorists but also between ordinary Israelis and ordinary Palestinians, an unsettlingly relentless suspenseful portrait of terror, intolerance and cruelty on both sides, on all sides, tempered by humanity, family and love, packed with knowledge and facts, a ticking bomb of a book that explodes in Hamass October 7 slaughter - this is the first October 7 novel." Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem

Author Bio

LAWRENCE WRIGHT is a staff writer for The New Yorker, a playwright, a screenwriter, and the author of ten books of nonfiction, including The Looming Tower, Going Clear, and God Save Texas, and one previous novel, God's Favorite. His books have received many honors, including a Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower.