The Human Scale: A Novel

Lawrence Wright at the height of his powers. Centers around the newfoundand forcedrelationship between a Palestinian American FBI agent and a hardline Israeli cop, working together uneasily to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza. Moving, thrilling, with extraordinary scope, it does for Palestine and Israel what Gorky Park did years ago for Russia. In the vein of John le Carr and Graham Greene, this is the rare novel that manages to entertain, educate, and deeply move the reader.Tony Malik is a halfIrish, halfArab New Yorkbased FBI agent, specializing in money flowing from drug and arms deals. The novel opens in shocking fashion, with Malik seriously injured by a terroristplanted bomb. During his lengthy recuperative process, his life changes radically. A longterm relationship ends, and his job is on the verge of being taken away from him. During this period he learns more about his roots and becomes interested in his fathers past and familyhis father came to America years ago from Palestine. Malik decides to make a trip to his fathers homeland to attend the wedding of his niece, whom he has never met. As a result of his plans, he is given a simple assignment by his boss at the FBI, partly to see how well he can still do his job. That simple assignment becomes anything but simple.As soon as he arrives in Gaza, the Israeli police chief overseeing the area is murdered. Malik is at first a suspect. Then, due to his superior investigative skills, he is invited into the Israeli investigation, seeking the murderer. At the core of this novel is Maliks relationship with Yossi, the hardline antiArab Israeli police officer leading the investigation. They must learn to trust each other because, as they move closer to solving the case, they realize there is no one else they can trust on either side.Extraordinary threedimensional characters populate this novel: Yossis daughter, studying in Paris, trying to escape the violence that surrounds her in Israel; Maliks niece, whose wedding and life are shattered by the murder; her fianc, a peacenik whose existence is complicated by the fact that his cousin is high up in the Hamas command; religious leaders on both sides; corrupt Israeli cops; Palestinians thirsting for violence against Israel; Israelis determined to crush the Palestinians. Lawrence Wright brings a wide and complicated tapestry to life, one that culminates on October 7, 2023, with the deadly Hamas attack on Israel. But he has written more than just a thriller, or even just an examination of all these complicated lives. He has written a novel that manages to explore and explain much of the devastating history that encompasses the relationship between Israel and Palestineand shows it to us in a way that poignantly reveals the tragic human scale that is involved.