Broken Bridge ANNOTATION
The murder of fourteen-year-old Glen Shelby, soon after his arrival in Israel to visit his father's family, has a dramatic effect on the lives of his relatives, the other members of their kibbutz, and the Arabs responsible for his death.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The attack came suddenly and without warning, as twoyoung teenagers walked casually through the streets of Jerusalem,When it was over, one lay dead, the other mysteriously spared,yet left to face the horrendous choices and consequences thatresulted from being the sole witness.
In this gripping sequel to One More River, Lynne Reid Bankscaptures the spirit and complex passions of present-day Israelthrough the powerful voices of a new generation as they join theunrelenting struggle against the consequences of decades of war.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
The target audience wasn't even born when this book's predecessor, One More River, was published 22 years ago. No matter, because this gripping novel stands-indeed gallops-just fine on its own. At the behest of his father Noah, who turned his back on Israel and his first family years earlier, Glen, a rich Canadian teen, reluctantly accompanies his cousin Nili (the daughter of the heroine of One More River) to her native kibbutz, which he imagines as a ``weirdo farm village in [a] crazy country filled with barbarians.'' Readers expecting a formulaic YA story, in which Glen overcomes adversity and learns to love his new surroundings, are in for a rude shock: almost immediately he is murdered by an Arab; Nili, the sole witness, refuses to identify the assassin's companion, who unfathomably spared her life. Banks takes an unflinching look at Israel today: at the eroding kibbutzim, at the unwelcome yet much-needed Russian immigrants and, most courageously of all, at the bloody and seemingly irresolvable conflict with the Arabs. Interwoven throughout are resonant themes of homecoming, family and forgiveness. A powerful, moving tale that provides no easy answers for Jew or Arab, this novel should provoke much thought and discussion. Ages 10-up. (Apr.)
School Library Journal
Gr 7-10-The murder of a Canadian teen by Arab terrorists in the streets of Jerusalem heightens political tensions and triggers conflicting emotions felt by members of his family in this sequel to One More River (Morrow, 1992). Twenty-five years have passed since Lesley Shelby and her parents emigrated to Israel from Canada; Nili, her daughter, witness to the brutal murder of her cousin Glen, is inexplicably spared. In the aftermath of the attack, as police forces track the murderers, Nili's family tries to come to terms with grief and anger. Nili, fiercely loyal to Jewish Israel, is torn as she tries to protect the terrorist who deliberately intervened and saved her life. Her uncle Noah, the murdered boy's father, faces demons that made him flee Israel, abandoning his first family, years ago. Readers of the earlier novel could fully emphathize with teenage outsider Lesley Shelby, as she made the painful adjustment to the strangeness and raw danger of kibbutz life near the Jordanian border. Broken Bridge, however, has so many points-of-view that its focus is splintered. While its varied voices weave an intricate tapestry of events and emotions in contemporary Israel, both Jewish and Arab, YA readers will find it hard to identify with the guilt of adult characters the ages of their parents and grandparents.-Alice Casey Smith, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, Manalapan, NJ
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