Publisher Description

'I am writing this for you Saleem. I am writing about us, about how I loved you, and how I killed you.' As Avi Goldberg, the son of a Jewish pioneer, sits at a desk in a dark cell in a military prison in the Negev desert, he fills the long nights writing about his friend Saleem, an Israeli Arab he befriended on a beach one scorching July day, and the story of Saleem's family, whose loss of their Ancestral home in 1948 cast a long shadow over their lives. Avi and Saleem understand about the past: they believe it can be buried, reduced to nothing. But then September 2000 comes and war breaks out - endless, unforgiving and filled with loss. And in the midst of the Intifada, which rips their peoples apart, they both learn that war devours everything, that even seemingly insignificant, utterly mundane, things get lost in war and that, sometimes, if you do not speak of these things, they are lost to you forever. Set amongst the white chalk Galilee Mountains and the hostile desert terrain of the Negev Desert, the inbetween people is a story of longing that deals with hatred, forgiveness, and the search for redemption.The haunting poetic tone is not unlike that of Ben Okri's 'The Famished Road', whilst the themes examined are similar to those dealt with by Pat Barker in 'The Ghost Road'. The simplicity of the tone is unflinching throughout, and depicts the eternal search for a home and a sense of place.

Author Biography

Born in the town of Dalkey in County Dublin in 1973, Emma McEvoy read History & Politics at University College Dublin. She later settled in Israel, where she lived on a Kibbutz on the border between Israel and Lebanon. She now lives in West Cork with her husband and son, and works as a Project Manager on a documentation project for Cisco Systems. 'the inbetween people' is her first novel.

Review

Emma McEvoy brings a vibrant and original new voice to Irish writing. Turning away from traditional and well-trodden literary landscapes, she finds both a narrative and a setting that sparkle with fresh imagination. David Park, Author of 'The Truth Commissioner'

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