Real Time

Set in contemporary Israel, this powerful novel is narrated in real time by many voices: Sixteen-year-old Thomas, from Berlin, seeking answers to questions about his grandfather, a Nazi officer in World War II. Vera from Odessa, reclaiming her Jewish heritage. Baruch Ben Tov, a Holocaust survivor. Sameh Laham, illegally employed at a diner. His boss. Sameh’s friend Omar. A Palestinian doctor in an Israeli hospital. A mother. A soldier.
A newscaster . . .

Minute by minute, hour by hour, these lives and many others unfold?and then intersect in one violent moment on a highway outside Jerusalem. Each is drastically and irrevocably changed. What do secrets, hopes, dreams, and future plans mean after such a catastrophe? Can what was destroyed be made whole again?

Pnina Moed Kass is an American who has lived in Israel for more than thirty-five years. She is a professional writer whose credits include short stories, television series, and picture books. This novel was inspired by real-life events that, sadly, are a part of the complex everyday reality of living in the Middle East.