House of Israel, Vol. 3: A New Dawn

by Robert Marcum

After a devastating world war, Jews have flocked to the Middle East with the dream of finding safety and security in a land they can call their own. But even as David Ben Gurion declares Israel an independent state, war deepens between the incoming refugees and the surrounding Arab world. During this dangerous time, dear friends and adopted family members of Ephraim and Hannah Daniels continue their fight for Israel. Living in a refugee camp in Lebanon, Mary Aref Schwartz is stunned to hear that her husband has been killed. But her heart wonâ t allow her to accept the news, and she decides to travel to Jerusalem in the slim hope that he may have survived. It will be a miracle if she makes it, since all forms of modern transportation have been blocked by the war. When Arabs overwhelm Jewish forces in the Holy City, Abraham Marshak is captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Trans Jordon. His new wife, Naomi, is desperate to free him. But does she have the strength of willâ and the courageâ to succeed against tremendous odds? Wally Berman, Ephraimâ s friend from fighter pilot days in Germany, falls in love with an attractive refugee. Together they discover that a brother who was believed dead is in fact alive. If they can reach him in time, will they be able to save him? Filled with twists, turns, and surprises, A New Dawn, the final volume of the compelling House of Israel series, is a powerful tale of love, faith, and the force of will that lie at the heart of a conflict that continues to this day

Genres: Lds, Historical Fiction, Lds Fiction

385 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jesse Whitehead · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually find Robert Marcum’s writing to be tolerable at best but his stories compelling enough to get me through.

This third volume I kind of got lost. The second volume of this series ended on a cliff hanger with one of the main characters seemingly dead and others in dangerous places as the Israelis and the Muslims fought over Jerusalem.

If the book had picked up from there, or if the series had ended there it would have been a better story. As it was all the terrible things — including character deaths — turn into good things and people are alive after all. Coincidences pile on coincidences until it becomes impossible to suspend disbelief. Then all the characters get together and spend all their time talking about what is going on in the rest of the country.

This has been a problem with all of Marcum’s books that I have read. He is prone to telling rather than showing. He doesn’t know how to make his conversations dynamic enough to be interesting. He suffers from too much historical knowledge that he seems compelled to get on the page and resorts to maid and butler dialogue in order to do it.

I had some hopes for this series when it started. I liked the characters. I liked the story and the setting in which it was being told. Those characters are almost missing in this final book. The setting is gone and the story is almost nonexistent as it takes a sidestep to allow history to take place around it.

History is not a bad place for a story. History is not even a bad story to tell. But when the story has to go away in order for the history to show up then perhaps it’s time to reexamine your decision making paradigm.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book slow due to time constraints and it was really hard to put it down. For me, this was a very good and intriguing story. I thought it was a great conclusion to the series, but the story could definitely be taken further. I read a review where the reviewer thought it was dumb to have "too happy of an ending" and that the character should have just stayed dead, but for me, that made the story, that he lived. Maybe some parts of it were unrealistic (not to me, but to other reviewers), but I think the overall message that a people can be strengthened into great acts of courage and love and hope after going through challenges we can't imagine is quite inspiring. I loved how the story showed that the Jewish people went from "turning the other cheek" into fighting for what they believed in, and what strength of character it brought out in them. They weren't fighting for power or glory or money but for their families and for freedom to live and worship as they chose. Reminds me so much of Captain Moroni's times in the Book of Mormon. I thought Robert Marcum did a really good job on these books and I would recommend them. My daughter said she didn't want to read them because it was too sad what Hitler did to the Jews, but I think it's important to learn about it and to understand what happened, and what is still going on over there in the war for that one tiny little spot of holy land.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This last book was a nice little wrap-up to this trilogy about a group of friends/family (Jews, Christians, & Arabs) who struggle through the formation of the State of Israel suffering loss, misunderstanding, hardship, love, friendship, and bond together in ways that can only come from a shared struggle such as this. One of the strengths of this series I think is the way the characters - almost strangers at the end of WWII and the beginning of the series, many of them orphaned due to the war - create a family-type bond together. While each has different backgrounds and different reasons for joining the struggle for a Jewish homeland, they band together, helping & supporting, sharing - and thus strengthening each other through the good and the bad of it all.

I have studied some of the struggle for the nation of Israel, but have never read any novels that personalized this part of world history for me and, while not exactly Pulitzer Prize material, these novels did that for me.

[goddess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely series. I liked this third installment almost as much as the first book. I'm a sucker for happy endings, so I'm glad many of the story lines ended fairly well. And even though I had a feeling that most things would end as such, there were many times I couldn't put the book down because I had to find out the next thing happening to Mary, or Naomi and Abraham, or Zohar. The characters are likeable and the writing is enjoyable.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good. But it introduced too many new characters, didn't really follow up with them (not well, at least) and then it was too much of a happy ending. I like happy endings, but not this happy. Is it impossible to have a happy ending when someone in the family has died? No. So just stick with him dying! It wasn't necessary to bring him back to life!

I'm done ranting.

the end.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good conclusion to the series but I didn't think that it was as good as the first book. Too many people to keep up with and see what happened to them. I did like however, than almost everyone got a happy ending and I like happy endings.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good conclusion to the series.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally finished the series. Informative.