Read The Prologue

 With Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yassir Arafat linked by bloodshed yet again, it has become apparent that the violence in the Middle East never ends, but waits patiently, biding its time to come again, and again.

 As the circle of violence continues, Jewish relatives of victims mourn their dead, while Palestinian mourners grieve over their dead.

 What is the history of this circle of violence?  What is daily life for Jewish and Arabic inhabitants of Israel and Palestine?

 Jean Sasson’s latest book, ESTER’S CHILD, reveals the compelling truths of the lives lived by Jewish Holocaust survivors who fled the violence of Europe as well as the lives lived by Palestinian refugees who fled the violence of Palestine. 

  The prestigious Library Journal describes the book for readers:

             “Sasson weaves a remarkable tale of three families, the Jewish Gales, the Palestinian Antouns, and the German gentile Kleists whose lives intertwine in mysterious ways for more than half a century.  Interned in the Warsaw Ghetto, Joseph Gale briefly meets Friedrich Kleist, an SS officer who decries the horrors he witnesses.  After the war, Joseph and his wife, Ester, among the few members of their extensive families to have survived the Holocaust, settle in Israel.  Jump forward in time, and Demetrius Antoun is a Palestinian doctor who hates the Israelis for murdering his friends and family.  Michel Gale, son of Joseph and Ester, is an Israeli officer who hates the Arabs for trying to deny him a Jewish homeland.  His sister, Jordan, and Christine Kleist, a German nurse seeking to make amends for her father’s Nazi past by working in a Lebanese refugee camp, are caught in the middle.  In light of the recent attack on the World Trade Center, Sasson’s story is keenly relevant, as it exposes the downward spiral of irrational hatred and the bitter seeds sown in its path…”

 The Historical Novels Review says, “…for anyone who ever wanted to know how Israel came into existence and why the Palestinians wish it hadn’t”

 Book List starred review says:  “Penned with compassion and set amid the war-torn backdrop of Europe and the unfolding military and political drama of the postwar Middle East, this absolutely riveting cross-cultural saga will have readers eagerly turning pages in order to reach a suitable stunning conclusion.”

 In ESTER’S CHILD, the international bestselling author of the Princess Trilogy shows that she is a brilliant storyteller.  Her latest work of historical fiction reveals layers and varieties of hate and love seldom seen in popular fiction.  Both plot and character driven, ESTER’S CHILD, is a passionate book with several love stories set amid the twentieth century’s most dramatic historical events, from World War II to the current conflicts in Israel and Palestine.