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It's Easier to Reach Heaven Than the End of the Street: A Jerusalem Memoir
Author(s): Emma Williams (Author)
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication Date: 19 Jun. 2006
- Edition: First Edition
- Language: English
- Print length: 464 pages
- ISBN-10: 0747583714
- ISBN-13: 9780747583714
Book Description
In August, 2000, Emma Williams arrived with her three small children in Jerusalem to join her husband and to work as a doctor. A month later, the Palestinian intifada erupted. For the next three years, she was to witness an astonishing series of events in which hundreds of thousands of lives, including her own, were turned upside down. Williams lived on the very border of East and West Jerusalem, working with Palestinians in Ramallah during the day and spending evenings with Israelis in Tel Aviv. Weaving personal stories and conversations with friends and colleagues into the long and fraught political background, Williams’ powerful memoir brings to life the realities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She vividly recalls giving birth to her fourth child during the siege of Bethlehem, and her horror when a suicide bomber blew his own head into the schoolyard where her children played each day. Understanding in her judgement, yet unsparing in her honesty, Williams exposes the humanity, as well as the hypocrisy at the heart of both sides’ experiences. Anyone wanting to understand this intractable and complex dispute will find this unique account a refreshing and an illuminating read.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘Compelling…, extraordinary and insightful account of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict’ — Harpers Bazaar July 2006
Israeli-Palestinian conflict’ — Harpers Bazaar July 2006
‘I plan on giving this book to people who ask me: `what is going
on over there?’ —
‘One of the most honest accounts of those terrible
years…proportionate, subtle, comprehensive…biased towards moderation
and hope.’ —
‘intelligent, incisive account…her cool analysis of the humanity
and hypocrisy at the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian fighting is striking’ —
You really must read. Our choice of the best recent books. —
Sunday Times, July 2, 2006,About the Author
Emma Williams read history at Oxford and medicine at London University. She has worked as a doctor in Britain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, New York, South Africa and Jerusalem. From 2000-3 she was the correspondent for the Spectator and wrote for several other newspapers about Palestinian-Israeli affairs and her own experiences.
