Sleeping with the Enemy

Name: Sleeping with the Enemy
Rating: 4.3 (156 reviews)

by Colin Falconer

First published 2017

Amazon

4.2(156)

Palestine, 1933. Rishou Hassan belongs to an Arab farming community with deep roots in its village, while Sarah Landauer is the daughter of the leader of a neighbouring Jewish settlement. Their relationship begins before migration, British policy and rival nationalist movements make ordinary contact between the two communities increasingly dangerous.

As violence grows through the later years of the Mandate, private affection becomes politically charged. Family expectations, land, communal loyalty and fear of displacement place pressure on both Rishou and Sarah, and the conflict eventually carries them towards the war of 1948. The novel treats their relationship as part of a larger history in which two communities develop incompatible claims to the same landscape. Personal loyalty can therefore be interpreted as betrayal from either side, leaving the characters to decide whether love can survive a struggle that is redefining identity and belonging around them.