The Lie: A Novel

Written by Hesh Kestin

Narrated by Kathe Mazur

A provocative thriller about a dynamic Israeli lawyer—famous for defending accused Palestinians—whose views are tested when her own son is taken captive by Hezbollah: “The Lie is what great fiction is all about” (Stephen King).

Dahlia Barr is a devoted mother, soon-to-be divorced wife, lover of an American television correspondent. She is also a brash and successful Israeli attorney who is passionate about defending Palestinians accused of terrorism. One day, to her astonishment, the Israeli national police approach Dahlia with a tantalizing proposition: Join us, and become the government’s arbiter on when to use the harshest of interrogation methods—what some would call torture. Dahlia is intrigued. She has no intention of permitting torture, but can she change the system from within? She takes the job.

As Dahlia settles into her new role, her son Ari, a twenty-year-old lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces, is kidnapped by Hezbollah and whisked over the border to Lebanon. The one man who may hold the key to Ari’s rescue is locked in a cell in police headquarters. He is an Arab who has a long and complicated history with Dahlia. And he’s not talking. Yet.

A nail-biting thriller that “will stay with you” (The New York Times Book Review), The Lie is an unforgettable story of human beings on both sides of the terror equation whose lives turn out to share more in common than they ever could have imagined. “An utterly riveting thriller that is likely to rank as one of the year’s best…The Lie has everything: memorable characters, a compelling plot, white-knuckle military action, and an economy and clarity of prose that is direct, powerful, and at times beautiful” (Booklist, starred review).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Mar 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781442370548

Hesh Kestin

Hesh Kestin was for two decades a foreign correspondent, reporting from the Middle East on war, international security, terrorism, arms dealing, espionage, and global business. He was the London-based European correspondent for Forbes and is an eighteen-year veteran of the Israel Defense Forces. His articles have appeared in Newsday, the Jerusalem Post, Inc. and Playboy. The father of five, Kestin lives on Long Island in New York.

Reviews for The Lie

[Ruta Grinkus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gute, sehr gute Geschichte- nur leider die Charaktere viel zu flach. Meine Theorie: männlichen Autoren fehlt meistens die Empathie, die für echte Tiefe und mitfühlende Darstellung der Protagonisten erforderlich ist.!

[ssimon2000-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was an emotional roller coaster!

Excellent writing, excellent character building, and the depth of the story is incredible. On the surface, it's a thriller set in modern-day Israel and Lebanon as a team of commandos make a rescue attempt of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. It's also a much deeper moral morass of what actions, if any, should be taken to find the whereabouts of the soldiers, to what level the protagonists will stoop, and how it will impact the political will of the nation. There are no "good guys" here, just two races that have been at war for so long that they've forgotten why they are fighting or how it started in the first place.

Highly recommended!

[lisapeet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This one's a thriller, set in contemporary Israel -- a fast-moving, tense clash rooted in the Middle Eastern conflict. To call the book cinematic should take nothing away from its literary muscle. It's a tightly plotted book, a political game of nerve with some seriously charismatic special ops thrown in for good measure.The Lie is really a series of lies, ranging from national in scope to small and deeply personal. Kestin's protagonist, Dahlia Barr, is an Israeli Jewish human rights attorney who has made it her business for years to represent Palestinians. When she is persuaded to work for the Israeli Police Force arbitrating the use of "extraordinary means," she finds herself caught between extreme political factions and family tensions. We learn, among other things, that Israelis refer to the Arabs disparagingly as "cousins," in reference to their common ancestors, and that cockroaches aren't kosher. As in all thrillers, there's a payoff; to say more would be unfair to future readers. But Kestin is clearly having fun here.