I am delighted to announce my next release - and my first full length novel on Kindle Unlimited!
SIX DAYS IN JERUSALEM will be out just before Hanukkah this December, 2022.
Set amidst the dramatic geopolitical backdrop of the Six Day War in 1967, this novel tells the story of an Arab boy and a Jewish boy who find a spark of romance across the divided city of Jerusalem. While united by their common Kurdish heritage, the shifting sands of the Middle East threaten their blossoming love.
Blurb:
Jerusalem, 1967, one day before the sudden outbreak of the Six Day War. In Jordanian East Jerusalem, Omar's Muslim family are preparing traditional Kurdish dishes for his older brother's wedding. Meanwhile, across the barbed wire border in Israeli West Jerusalem, Asaf’s Jewish family are also preparing traditional Kurdish dishes for a wedding. Omar slips through the heavily guarded border dividing the city with his Jordanian father’s diplomatic pass, where he meets Asaf in the busy Jerusalem marketplace.
Despite the boys’ searing differences in religion and nationality, their cultural connection sparks a friendship that holds the promise of young love. Slipping across barbed-wire borders, their brief relationship becomes trapped in the flipping pages of history and shifting borders of the Middle East. As Jewish and Arab armies battle across Jerusalem, Omar and Asaf must fight for their own chance at love.
This novel is one of my most personal stories to date. I've lived in Jerusalem since 2015 and I'm married to a Kurdish man who was born and raised in the city. In exploring the culture of my in-laws, I discovered there are very few books in English which celebrate Kurdish culture. The first Kurdish novel translated into English - I Stared at the Night of the City - was only published in 2017.
Furthermore, novels dealing with the experiences of Eastern Jews from Arab countries are few and far between, whether in Hebrew or English. In SIX DAYS IN JERUSALEM, I wanted to center the experiences of two gay teenagers from historically overlooked communities finding love across the heavily guarded border which divided Jerusalem for 19 years. One of the few well-known novels dealing with this time period is The Mandelbaum Gate by Scottish author Muriel Spark, published in 1964. Being originally from Scotland myself, I wanted to revisit this time period she wrote about, and the momentous days when that reality changed into today's borders, which are still under contention today. I hope this novel can be a story of love in the midst of so much conflict.
Stay tuned to my social media for more release information coming over the next several weeks! If you are a book blogger and would be interested in receiving an ARC, please get in touch! Harryfredrey@gmail.com
I am delighted to partner with a world-class Jerusalem-based artist for the cover for Six Days in Jerusalem, which I will be revealing in due course. But the feeling will be something like this:
