WAKING LIONS

In this intense moral thriller, an Israeli doctor conceals a fatal hit-and-run, is blackmailed by his victim’s widow into operating an underground clinic for refugees, and sees everything he ever believed about himself crumble to bits.

Neurosurgeon Eitan Green has just gotten out from a very late night at the ER. He is burning off steam on a deserted road in his SUV, bellowing along with Janis Joplin, “thinking that the moon was the most beautiful he had ever seen when he hit[s] the man.” From the moment we meet him, Eitan’s bad luck will become tangled in his good intentions, his poor choices with his righteous ones, his appeal with his weakness. The very vehicle in which he had the accident was a consolation prize to make up for having to move from Tel Aviv to dusty Beersheba: he was transferred when he uncovered corruption at his hospital. So he’s quite an ethical guy, as murderers go, and a devoted husband and father, too. Further complicating the situation and spinning off additional consequences, his wife is the police detective assigned to investigate the hit-and-run accident. By then Eitan has already learned that his getaway was not as clean as he had hoped: the day after the accident, a beautiful Eritrean woman shows up at his door with his wallet, dropped at the scene—and a demand. “During the day, you can do whatever you want…but you will keep your nights free.” Free to provide medical care to an endless stream of illegal immigrants whom he will treat in secret in a garage. That is just the first of the twists upon twists upon twists in this story—more than one of which will have readers yelping out loud.

Gundar-Goshen’s U.S. debut seems poised to catch fire, with the multiple narrative perspectives and dizzying reversals that connoisseurs of this genre adore.