The Jerusalem File

By Joel Stone

Jerusalem, that most historic of cities, is seething with its legacy, the futile attempt to determine the future by reenacting past injustices.

Except for that memorable period in France, Levin has been here for most of his adult life. Retired now from the security services, he lives alone a few streets away from his wife, continents away from his children. Adrift, Levin agrees to follow his friend’s wife and discover her secret lover. Unlike suicide bombings, which strike him as incomprehensible, the assignment engages him as one that can be measured and possibly solved.

As Levin watches the woman, Deborah, he begins to assess her as a potential lover might. And when the man her husband believes to be her paramour is murdered and Deborah, in desperation, turns to him with an unexpected request, his own moral universe becomes as conflicted as the struggle between Arab and Jew for the fate of the fabled city.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Jan 27, 2009
• ISBN: 9781609459321

Joel Stone

Joel Stone is the senior curator at the Detroit Historical Society, which oversees the Detroit Historical Museum and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. A native Detroiter, he has written and edited works spanning the city’s history. Stone’s most recent book is Floating Palaces of the Great Lakes.

Reviews for The Jerusalem File

[fordbarbara · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A short novella, rather sad, about a divorced middle aged man and his involvement in spying on the wife of a friend and then sleeping with her.