The Deserter

Powerful and sensitively told, The Deserter is the debut novel from Peter Bourne, exploring the complexities of family and political tensions within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lev Dubnow, a middle-aged Jewish doctor, returns to Israel after some years away to attend his father's wake. He is shocked and deeply unsettled by what he finds.

Taking a trip up through the West Bank, Lev comes face-to-face with the dark, potentially dangerous atmosphere of fear and suspicion that prevails there.

After witnessing the daily currency of careless humiliation and intimidation, and after becoming involved in a number of incidents, he is eventually moved to voluntarily provoke a confrontation. And it is one which will have devastating, lasting consequences for him.

From Lev's difficult entry into Israel, his meetings with members of his family – each with a different perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict – through his renewed appraisal of the Jerusalem he once knew, this is a memorable, profound narrative immersed in the complexities of the region.