Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel

by Matti Friedman

Award-winning writer Matti Friedman’s tale of Israel’s first spies has all the tropes of an espionage novel, including duplicity, betrayal, disguise, clandestine meetings, the bluff, and the double bluff--but it’s all true.

The four spies at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. In 1948, with Israel’s existence in the balance during the War of Independence, our spies went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a kiosk, collecting intelligence, and sending messages back to Israel via a radio whose antenna was disguised as a clothesline. While performing their dangerous work these men were often unsure to whom they were reporting, and sometimes even who they’d become. Of the dozen spies in the Arab Section at the war’s outbreak, five were caught and executed. But in the end the Arab Section would emerge, improbably, as the nucleus of the Mossad, Israel’s vaunted intelligence agency.

Spies of No Country is about the slippery identities of these young spies, but it’s also about Israel’s own complicated and fascinating identity. Israel sees itself and presents itself as a Western nation, when in fact more than half the country has Middle Eastern roots and traditions, like the spies of this story. And, according to Friedman, that goes a long way toward explaining the life and politics of the country, and why it often baffles the West. For anyone interested in real-life spies and the paradoxes of the Middle East, Spies of No Country is an intimate story with global significance.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Israel, Middle East, Jewish, Politics, Espionage

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 5, 2019

About the author

Matti Friedman is an Israeli Canadian journalist and author.

Friedman was born in Canada and grew up in Toronto. In 1995, he made aliyah to Israel and now he lives in Jerusalem.

Between 2006 and the end of 2011, Friedman was a reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press (AP) news agency. During his journalistic career, he also worked as a reporter in Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Moscow and Washington, D.C.

Following the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Friedman wrote an essay criticizing what he views as the international media's bias against Israel and undue focus on the country, stating that news organizations treat it as "most important story on earth." He cited the fact that when he was a correspondent at the Associated Press (AP), "the agency had more than 40 staffers covering Israel and the Palestinian territories. That was significantly more news staff than the AP had in China, Russia, or India, or in all of the 50 countries of sub-Saharan Africa combined. It was higher than the total number of news-gathering employees in all the countries where the uprisings of the 'Arab Spring” eventually erupted... I don’t mean to pick on the AP—the agency is wholly average, which makes it useful as an example. The big players in the news business practice groupthink, and these staffing arrangements were reflected across the herd." Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the piece went "viral" on Facebook. The Atlantic then invited Friedman to write a longer article.

Friedman's first book, The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible, was published in May 2012 by Algonquin Books. The book is an account of how the Aleppo Codex, "the oldest, most complete, most accurate text of the Hebrew Bible," came to reside in Israel. It was believed the codex had been destroyed during the 1947 Anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo when the Central Synagogue of Aleppo, where the codex was housed, was set on fire and badly damaged. In the book, Friedman also investigates how and why many of the codex's pages went missing and what their fate might be.

The book won the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, was selected as one of Booklist's top ten religion and spirituality books of 2012, was awarded the American Library Association's 2013 Sophie Brody Medal and the 2013 Canadian Jewish Book Award for history, and received second place for the Religion Newswriters Association's 2013 nonfiction religion book of the year.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

A history about Israel's first spies, who infiltrated the Arabs before the war that started the day Israel was founded, and then formed the legendary Mossad.

Gripping reading.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're spying for the CIA, you have Langley and the United States of America. You might not see them from your street corner or hotel room, but you know they exist, and their power is a comfort. These men had no such thing. They had no country – in early 1948, Israel was a wish, not a fact. If they disappeared, they'd be gone. No one might find them. No one might even look. The future was blank. And still they set out into those treacherous times, alone.

In 2011, journalist and author Matti Friedman began a years-long interview with Isaac Shosan: a now elderly Israeli man with a unique story to tell about the early cloak-and-dagger days of Israeli Intelligence. Adding in information from others' memoirs, newspapers, and military reports, Friedman paints a picture of what life was like for these young men, sent out mostly unprepared and unsupervised into dangerous territory; the result is Spies of No Country. As their mission was to blend in and observe, this isn't a thrilling book about explosions and assassinations (although there is some of that), and as their unit was disbanded before the creation of Mossad, it would be unfair to call this a look at that famed organisation's genesis. What I liked best about Friedman's last book, Pumpkinflowers, were the parts that he processed through his own experience, but since this book isn't about him, that connection felt missing: what results is a stew of facts without a lot of flavour. Still glad to have read it. (Note: I read an ARC and quotes might not be in their final forms.)

This isn't a comprehensive history of the birth of Israel or Israeli intelligence, or even of the unit in question. It centers on a period of twenty pivotal months, from January 1948 through August of the following year; on two Levantine port cities eighty miles apart, Haifa and Beirut; and on four young people drawn from the margins of their society into the center of events. I was looking less for the sweep of history than for its human heart, and found it at these coordinates.

Essentially: In the aftermath of WWII, as the British were preparing to dissolve the Mandate for Palestine and the UN declared the area to be the new official homeland for Jewish peoples, surrounding countries became unstable, with Arab attacks on their Jewish neighbours and the Jews responding with counterattacks. In this instability, and even though the British forces were blockading Jewish refugees from entering the country, many Arabic Jews breached the border and joined life in the kibbutzes. In this period before the official declaration of statehood – in a time with no politicians, military, leaders of any sort – some men tried to establish order through unofficial means; and although the Brits had ordered the dissolution of a nascent intelligence service (which they had been training in case the Nazis entered the Middle East), that service's leaders began their own recruitment mission. Scouring the kibbutzes for native Arab-speaking Jews – those born in Syria, Jordan, Yemen – they pulled out the young men deemed most likely to pass as native Muslims and began to train them in the details of Muslim ritual, custom, and idiom. Once trained, they were sent to blend in in the neighbouring countries, and Friedman's telling focuses on the four young men who comprised the Beirut cell; men who posed as Jew-hating refugees, operating a kiosk and taxi service, listening for gossip and local sentiment and transmitting the details through a clandestine radio. Trapped behind hostile lines when Israel's War of Independence erupted, these men had no idea what was happening in the new Israeli state and less chance of getting information about the families they left behind in Aleppo or Damascus. This story is really about people who had been treated as “other” in their Arabic countries of birth, who were trained to erase what is other and non-Arabic about themselves, and who were then returned to a new country that was dismayed by the number of Arabic Jews streaming into their borders in the wake of the war and local reprisals in their countries of birth. When Isaac is eventually extracted, he doesn't know where or who he is:

There was no hero's welcome. There was no welcome at all, just a clerk's voucher for a night at an army hostel if he didn't have anywhere better to sleep. He didn't. He thought someone from the Palmac might be there to hear his stories, but there was no Palmac anymore. He was in the same city he'd left two years before on the bus with the refugees – and in a different city, with new people in the old homes. It was the same country he'd left in the chaos of the war, and a different one, where he'd never been. He was the same person and a different person.

There were some themes that I wished Friedman had gone into deeper: the widespread fear of Jews trying to pass as natives in order to destabalise countries (Friedman mentions Moses and the Dreyfus Affair) and the irony of a ragtag cabal accomplishing the ruse. And I wish he had gone further into the idea that Zionism was a European idea (which was essentially communist and atheist) and that these architects of the Jewish homeland were dismayed and disgusted by the influx of Arabic Jews (“Israel is more than one thing. It's a refugee camp for the Jews of Europe. And it's a minority insurrection inside the world of Islam.”) And the natural fallout of this mass migration of the minorities into Israel: the cultural loss to communities with ancient Jewish Quarters now empty of Jews; the fact that it's so much easier to “other” people when you no longer live alongside them. These ideas are all mentioned in passing as integral to understanding modern Israel, and I would have liked more on them.

And yet, as Friedman writes, the big picture wasn't his focus here. He did a good job of describing the events of the twenty months he set out to relate, and his interviews with Isaac (the only member of the “Arab Section” still living) added some humanity to the base facts. I am left wanting more, but I suppose that only proves that I enjoyed what I got: an interesting little piece of a complex picture.

[MH · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging history of four young Mizrahi Jews and their undercover work for the pre-Israeli intelligence unit, the Arab Section. Using recently declassified documents, interviews with the few survivors, and numerous happy snapshots the men took (they were not the most professional of spies), Friedman paints a compelling picture of young, brave men, outcasts and idealists, and their struggles with their assignments, their identities, and each other, all building to the massive changes to the Middle East as the idea of Israel becomes the state of Israel. He keeps a very narrow focus, staying on the street level with his spies and only going into the complicated history of the region when it directly impacts them (and even then very briefly, assuming the reader is familiar with the British partitioning of Palestine and the details of the wars that followed), and rarely looking outside of 1948 and 1949. This is a little disappointing - he refers to one spy raising his Jewish daughter as an Arab as "beyond the scope of this book" (79), and his one chapter solely devoted to modern Israel and its ongoing tensions between the European and Arabic world is absolutely excellent. I would have happily read more on both subjects, but his goal is to tell his story quickly and well, remembering these men in this time, and at that he's very successful.

I was fortunate enough to win an ARC through a Goodreads giveaway.

[Fran Hawthorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick summary: A well-written and fascinating book, with special relevance today.

"Spies of No Country" is the story of the earliest days of Israel's vaunted spy agency--starting even before the modern State of Israel was founded in 1948. It tells the story by focusing on four young men, all mizrahi, or Middle Eastern Jews, born in the 1920s and 1930s in what is now Israel or in neighboring Arab lands, whose families had lived there for years. They were untrained civilians who learned on the job, the same way their fellow Israelis were learning ad hoc how to build the legal, agricultural, and physical infrastructure of their country.

Thus, the book reads like a thriller. Will Yakuba manage to explode Hitler's former yacht, being retrofitted to join the Egyptian navy? Will Gamliel's cover be blown because he's using the wrong Arabic dialect? The writing is clear, lively, fast-paced, also like a thriller. The tension lies more in the risks that the four men face in trying to blend in, rather than their derring-do.

And of course the premise and setting are enthralling, because they're so rarely written about.

Beyond the historical interest and spy-drama, author Matti Friedman uses his four protagonists' stories to investigate the roots of the ongoing Arab-Jewish conflict. Back in the 1940s, you couldn't tell Jews from Arabs in that part of the world: They looked alike, spoke the same language, ate the same food, lived in the same cities and towns. That, of course, is why the four young Jews were able to pass as Arabs in Syria, Lebanon, and the Muslim areas of British-controlled Palestine.
Sadly, that's less true today--largely because these two groups no longer live side by side. After the United Nations recognized the modern state of Israel, the neighboring Arab nations expelled all their Jews, and Israel pushed out most of its Arab residents.

(Unfortunately, the historic similarity echoes the book's main flaw: It's also hard to tell the four young spies apart.)

Friedman also shows how the two sides' different reactions to Israel's victory in its War of Independence planted the seeds of the conflict that still continues: For Israeli Jews, it was the end of the war, to be followed by a peace agreement that recognized their state and let everyone live in their own country. To most Arabs, it was a temporary setback--the fault of their leaders--to be followed by more fighting, eventual victory, the expulsion of the Jews, and the return to their former lands.

Today, the people of that region are still at each other's throats; the same throats that speak such similar languages.

[Rosann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story told by Matti Friedman of the young Jewish State is one that is not often told. I was riveted by the untold tales of the young Jews of Arabic origin and their relationship to the emerging country of Israel. Friedman ties together the lives of these young men as they went deeply undercover utilizing their unique cultural and language skills, inherent to people who were born and raised in Syria and other Arabic countries.

Most importantly for the reader, Friedman shows us how their contributions and those of similar Mediterranean upbringing, were quickly cast aside by the prevailing stories of a young country whose narrative was one of European refugees, the holocaust, Hebrew instead of Arabic, and a cultural, not religious, form of Judaism.

Truly, this is a history which needs exploring. Friedman's exploration does have some troublesome issues. He tends to jump backwards and forwards in time with little warning or segue. Also, I found that his sometimes conversation style of writing lessened the impact of his overall storytelling.

[Brisni (בריטני) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite possibly one of the most important books I've read regarding the origin of the nation of Israel to date. Vividly depicts a unique historical perspective and connects it to the present in a very mindful and observant way. Nonfiction that has the pace and prose of fiction. So glad I picked this up. Will re-read.

Absolutely excellent.

[debra L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Give this a 3+ stars for a fascinating story -- a new incite into yet another area I was unfamiliar with. Some interesting observations and descriptions but overall found the writing choppy. There wasn't an easy flow to reading and thus sometimes hard to follow . That said, worth the read for those of us interested in Israel's complex history and issues.

[Michael Rieman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matti Friedman brings his considerable skills as a journalist to this story of four young Jewish men of Middle Eastern backgrounds who left their former countries to live in the land we now know as Israel, only to be recruited to take up residence in Lebanon or Syria to gather information which might prove helpful for the Jewish State, before and for some time after the war which established Israel. We meet them in Haifa during the waning months of the British Mandate, when militias were being formed in both Arab and Jewish areas of the city,a time in which identities were uncertain, and someone who might appear to be Arab or Jew could be considered an enemy. Friedman clearly describes the dangers of moving about in the city, where an overheard conversation or phone call could mean death. The narrative then moves to Beirut, a city not directly on the battle front, but one which could provide information on the temperament of Lebanon, and its potential threat to Israel. The men had to take on the lives of working class Arab men, usually as refugees from the fighting in Palestine, and to a large extent they succeeded in doing so, all the while sending messages home in very improvised ways, all the while hoping to elude capture and certain death. The book does detail certain "missions" which provide the kind of action we might expect in spy literature, but these actions are not always successful, and generally show less dramatic action than we might have come to see in films or TV programs. The men discover, and destroy, a Red Cross truck in Haifa fitted out to bomb Jewish sites such as a crowded theater. They report on and seek to assassinate a Lebanese cleric who fervently urges young Arabs to slaughter Jews, but do not achieve success in this despite some thoughtful planning. They identify a ship, formerly the yacht Hitler hoped to use on the Thames after conquering Britain. This craft, they believed, was intended to be refitted as a warship to attack Israel. The mission to destroy it is described with the author's characteristic realism, and truthfulness to fact.
The stories of these men and their actions allow the author to delve into significant subjects of importance not only to Israel and the Middle East region, but to our own "Western" views of the continuing conflict. In the early days of the Jewish State, the prevailing political and social attitudes were formed largely from the Zionist beliefs of European founders and settlers. These beliefs looked to a socialist, egalitarian society which would not only be a new beginning for Jews, free from the shackles of prejudice and religious doctrine, but a society which could connect in peace with its neighbors. Some of those Zionists were puzzled by the ways of Jews from Arab countries, whose culture differed from their own. Middle Eastern Jews sometimes felt that they were held in less esteem. The creation of Israel, and the often brutal treatment of Jews by the Arabs of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, led to dramatic increases in the Israeli population from the Arab world. Friedman lets us see how these events produced dramatic changes for Israel itself. He also lets us understand that propaganda and ideologies on all sides differed from the reality of life. The spying and intelligence gathering that played a role in Israel's birth, and soon after laid the groundwork for the Mossad, had its losses, sorrows, and betrayals. The Arab beliefs that Israel was a "colonial venture" and a way for Europe to solve its problems with Jews to the detriment of the Arabs, fails to acknowledge the hostility to Jews in that Arab world, and the actual expulsion of Jewish families who had lived in the cities of the Middle East for centuries.
In the last section of the narrative, Friedman views the lives of these men from the perspective of contemporary Israel. For some of those men, the land they had left as "spies" was not the same land they returned to a few short years later.
I had wished that Friedman could have fleshed out the characters of the men a little more. Though he does note certain ways in which they differ, and even prove critical of each other later on, the fullness of character development did not come through to me. Perhaps that requires a novelist with Friedman's clear-eyed, sympathetic, and humanistic skills. By the time I finished this narrative, I was more moved than I had expected to be.

[Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book does a big disservice to anyone attempting to understand the complexity of the Israeli Palestinian history and conflict. The whole book is a testament to the Zionist sophistry and to the Mossad's motto "By Way of Deception". A reader who knows little about the history of Zionism and the middle east will be easily fooled by zionist sophistry and Mossad's By Way of Deception. Throughout the book, the narrative reinforces a century old narrative of the jews as victims persecuted in the middle east, whereas in reality they have lived and prospered there for millennia, often escaping from pogroms in Europe to find safety in the pluralist generous Arab world. At the beginning of the zionist movement, Jews, like Christians in Arab countries were part of the rich elite not a poor oppressed minority like the book claims. The book focuses on a story of four Arab jews, that were among thousands of Arab Jews (as well as British Jews from the ranks of the British army) recruited as spies by the zionists, they helped zionist terrorists commit major terrorist acts against British, American and Palestinian targets with the purpose of advancing the zionist project. The Lavon affair in Egypt, the King David hotel bombing in Jerusalem, The British Officers club bombing in Jerusalem, The Semiramis Hotel Bombing in Jerusalem, the Hanging of the British Sergeants in Jerusalem, etc...are examples for the novice. The objective of the Mossad was extremely sophisticated, besides the objectives of the terrorist and false flag operations, the massive recruitment of Arab jewish spies aimed at destroying the trust bond between Arab Jews and their ancestral society, resulting in the massive migration to Israel which needed these migrants to replace the millions of displaced Palestinians. The other myth propagated in this book is to portray the non existent Arab armies (Egypt, Jordan and Iraq were colonies of Britain, whereas Syria and Lebanon colonies of France) as a much stronger force than the Jewish army that was equipped with modern weapons and manned by soldiers and officers that were trained in Allied armies, the zionist also had unlimited funds from zionists in Europe and America to spend on their military and on their spying machine.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the late 1940’s, as the British were about to withdraw from Palestine and war seemed inevitable, the pool of potential Jewish spies from the Islamic world was very small: nine out of every ten Jews living in Palestine were European emigrés. But the spymaster known as Sam’an, who recruited for what eventually became the state of Israel, was reluctant to pay Arabs to spy on his behalf; as the author of this remarkable book says, “If Arab spies were needed, the Jews wouldn’t pay them – they would be them” (54). Thus began the recruitment of the four men who met the Hebrew description which has no parallel in English; roughly translated, it is “Ones Who Become Like Arabs.” While the vast majority of future Israelis were European refugees from the Holocaust, these four came from various places in the Mediterranean: from Syria, both the Jewish quarter of Damascus and that of Aleppo; from Yemen; and from Jerusalem in what was then British Palestine. The Zionist movement, as the author says, would try to replace the multiple languages and nationalities of the Jewish people “with one language, Hebrew, and one identity, which would come to be called Israeli” after the establishment of the state. “The idea was to normalize… but for spies their abnormality was a gift” (97-98). This gift strengthened what was called by the Jewish military force in Palestine the “Arab Section” and ultimately strengthened the new nation as the Arab Section evolved into the Mossad, literally meaning “the Institute,” formed in 1949 and, to this day, responsible for intelligence collection, covert operations, and counterterrorism.

The author does an excellent job of conveying the loneliness, strain, tension, and even terror of constant lying for months at a time, something that almost broke one of the more sensitive men more than once. As they developed deeper cover and established themselves inside Arab society, their contacts with their handlers had to be few and far between for safety’s sake. One even felt his sanity begin to go, wondering if he had dreamed his childhood in Jerusalem and was really a Syrian Arab. Friedman’s main theme, highly discussable for book groups, is this insider/outsider duality: as he says, “Double identity has always been part of life for Jews, members of a minority often outwardly indistinguishable from the majority. You wonder how much to show or hide at different times, how the sides of you fit, and whether it’s possible to abandon one side altogether” (96).

Friedman also gives the reader a feel for the missions themselves, the relief felt at eluding someone suspicious of one’s motives, the longing for Hebrew music and culture and conversation that couldn’t be indulged while undercover, the drudgery of disguising oneself as an everyday laborer. In fact, one of the men, Yakuba from Yemen, was angry that his militia commanders’ idea of Arab cover meant poverty and dirt - “eating straw… and working like a dog,”(103). You get the sense that both he and the author had respect for the other side and saw them as worthy equals. In fact, one of the strengths of the book is that the author goes out of his way to give us a balanced picture, drawing from primary accounts on both sides of the conflict, including one Arab leader's personal narration of the failed attempt by these men to assassinate him.

This is a fascinating book about these four spies whose missions helped establish Israel, and it contributes to an important conversation about the many discussable issues in their riveting story.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really interested in getting into this because of the almost legendary reputation of the Israeli spy system. On an entertainment level I've read a ton of books where the Mossad seems to know everything or seen in movies like WWZ where they begin building an anti zombie wall years because of everyone else because of their Tenth man policy. What I didn't realise it that not all of this is fiction. In 1973-1974, Israel Military Intelligence established a Control Unit that was expected to play this role of the devil’s advocate. Its responsibility was to produce a range of explanations and assessments of events that avoided relying on a single concept, as happened in 1973. The writer of WWZ Max Brooks puts it a bit more dramatically: if ten people are in a room, and nine agree on how to interpret and respond to a situation, the tenth man must disagree. His duty is to find the best possible argument for why the decision of the group is flawed.

Spies of No Country offers us a detailed look at the what can only be described as three of the founding members of the Israel spy system. There is no flashiness and high tech gadgets with information gleaned though high risk close proximity encounters. There is no long distance satellite surveillance, cameras need to be borrowed from acquaintances and every moment is fraught with danger and the real possibility that a single mistake could end their lives. It is much more about that man it woman sitting in the curb gleaning every snippet of information they can never knowing exactly what might be crucially important. With that the agents have an enormous sense of pride in what they are doing for their family and country with the knowledge that they are truly affecting the future.

It is intriguing and emotive and a raw moving piece of story telling.

Highly recommended

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read both of these books in the middle of my move. That could be part of why I found them both only so-so. This story of four of the first Israeli spies, in service just as Israel was coming into existence, was an interesting read. I know very little about the Middle East and so learned a lot about the history of the region. There were some tense moments, but the author's writing wasn't very immersive. Despite ample use of quotes from primary sources, I couldn't get into this one. There were many time jumps, making this feel more like a series of vignettes than a continuous narrative. The author provided less help than I needed keeping track of the many people involved. I also didn't enjoy when the author broke the third wall to talk to the reader about his experiences researching the book. Some authors can seamlessly blend the story of their research with the story they're telling, letting the reader learn with them. In this case, the author's asides weren't related directly to his discovery of information, but incidental visits to similar locations. This added to the disjointed feel of the story. It was a story full of exciting moments and I learned a lot. I just couldn't get into it as a narrative.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey

[Ron Wroblewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an interesting book. The book was written about the lives of 4 Israeli spies. Bur I would say that half or more than half of the book concerned the birth of the nation of Israeli 1948-49. And this was one of the problems of the book. A story would start about the exploits of one or more of the spies then it would discuss the political situation, then revert back to the story of the spies. I wish that the full story would be told continuously and either before or after cover the background. The story of Hilter's Yacht was like this - should have been one chapter, yet it was covered in 2 chapters.

I did learn some interesting things - Chapter 10 on Kim where the Arab Section was originally created to fight the Germans and not the British and the story about Hilter's Yacht in Chapters 15 and 16.

I was sorry to learn about the 2 factions in Israel: those from Europe who were primirily secluar and those from the Middle East who were religious. And how those from the Middle East were marginalized. They were in it together and should have realized how much they needed each other.

Overall, I wish there had been more stories of the adventures of the spies.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Americans think of Israeli history, we fasten on a handful of names: Chaim Weizmann. David ben Gurion. Golda Meir. We think of kibbutzim, the Israeli Defense Force, the country's great universities, and its legal system. All these people, and many others whose names are prominent in the country's history, are of European origin. And every institution they created was a product of European thought and tradition. That simply reflects the fact that "in the 1940s, nine of every ten Jews in Palestine came from Europe."

Yet the persistent image of Israel today as a Western outpost in the Eastern Mediterranean is highly misleading. To understand how that changed and so deeply influences the nation's politics today, you can do no better than to read Israeli-Canadian journalist Matti Friedman's revealing new book, Spies of No Country.

Four young Arab-speaking Jewish men were the first Israeli spies

Friedman's book tells the tale of four young Arab-speaking Jewish men who became spies for the scattered forces working to establish the State of Israel. They had emigrated to join Jewish settlements in Palestine from their homes in Damascus, Aleppo, Arab-occupied Jerusalem, and Yemen. They were, in a word, Asian Jews, like millions of others who later fled the towns and cities of the Middle East and North Africa following Israel's declaration of independence in 1948.

Though Friedman doesn't venture into Israeli political history, it's clear that long-neglected population rose into prominence in 1977 with the election of Menachem Begin. The country's rightward shift ever since then is one result. As Friedman points out, Asian Jews account today for half the country's population, and they tend to be poorer and less well educated than those of European descent. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long term in office is only the most recent manifestation of the sea change they embody in the country's political orientation.

"There was no state called Israel, nor did it seem likely there would be one."

The four men who constitute Friedman's principal subject were among some ten Arab-speaking Jews recruited by the Palmach in the years leading up to the War of Independence. They were formed into an Arab Section that has received scant attention from historians. The men were sent, singly or in teams, to Beirut and other Arab capitals to gather intelligence, armed with their wits and only the most minimal training. "There was no state called Israel, nor did it seem likely there would be one. The United Nations had no way to enforce the partition plan" mandated by the General Assembly in November 1947. And war had immediately broken out following its passage.

They were "the embryo" of the Mossad

It's difficult to imagine how poorly trained and ill-equipped were the men of the Arab Section. As Friedman wrote, "there weren't any cars. At the time, the Arab Section didn't even own a radio. When they needed a camera for one surveillance mission . . . they'd had to borrow a Minox from a civilian they knew." And at first there was no money, either. "It wasn't just that the Palmach couldn't pay salaries. The unit couldn't always cover bus fare or a cheap plate of hummus for lunch, and on at least one occasion agents had to stop trailing a target because they didn't have money for a night in a hostel.

"The men lived by their wits, acting on instinct that frequently led them to make mistakes. Yet they survived (unlike most of their fellows in the Arab Section), and they succeeded in feeding useful intelligence to their handlers in Palestine. "[A]fter hostilities began in 1948, the Section proved to be one of the only effective intelligence tools the Jews had."

However, there is no earth-shattering revelation in Spies of No Country. The four agents's "mission didn't culminate in a dramatic explosion that averted disaster, or in the solution of a devious puzzle. Their importance to history lies instead in what they turned out to be—the embryo of one of the world's most formidable intelligence services." And one of the four men Friedman writes about became one of Mossad's most celebrated agents.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about four spies for the Isreali movement prior to the formation of the country after the war of 1948. It is not about the war, but about the four individuals - Gamiel Cohen, Isaac Shoshan, Havakuk Cohen and Yakuba Cohen and the role they played before there was an official spy network. It is a very short book and a quick read. I had high hopes for the book (based on reviews of the author on previous books), but it was disappointing. The author's writing style just did not resonate with me. It read like a dull recitation of the facts and did not bring the four featured individuals to life for me.

I received a free copy of Spies of No Country by Matti Friedman courtesy of Net Galley  and Algonquin Books, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook and Twitter pages.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

the story had so much potential but the writing was dreadful. the story went all over the place with no clear focus. and by the end the author was really inserting his own biases into the book

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

---Full disclosure: I received this book for free from Goodreads. ---

So, here's the thing. I don't do spy stories, thrillers, or most political tales, nor do I gave a crap about Zionism. When this arrived I was somewhat trepidatious about what I had let myself in for by signing up for this book. I am happy to report that it all turned out well....quite well, in fact.

This book is really more about a handful of characters who happened to occupy a certain spot on the planet, at a very unique time in the history of the area. They come from a land & culture, a way of living, that has quickly (& unexpectedly) completely morphed into something no one could have foreseen. They were not spies as we understand spies to exist. They are better described as free-range players for a movement, really more of an idea of a movement, that had no set boundaries, definitions, or hierarchy. It barely even existed.

What was most fascinating about this story was 2-fold for me. Firstly, the characters themselves were men of a different time & mindset than currently exists. They represent the forgotten roots & origins of what has become a modern quandary. (Such as, what the idea of Zionism used to mean, as opposed to what it means now.) Second, the modern state of affairs as regards the Palestinian & Israeli countries, & the Arab, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, & just non-religious mix of people in the area, were made a less confusing conglomerate by reading ch. 18. According to a now elder spy guy, there was always going to be trouble in any mix that would refuse to acknowledge the Arab part of its citizenry & history. He explained that roughly 1/2 of the population of Israel has Arab-roots, (including Jews & Christians, not just Muslims) & the refusal to incorporate that cultural reality, the refusal to even acknowledge it, has led to no end of wounds, buried truths, cultural disconnects, & general unrest. When I read that ch., after having read the cultural lay of the land previously made known in preceding chapters, a lot of things about the area & its squabbles suddenly made sense. The people in this area are of many types. They might be wholly secular, from outside of the Middle East (or the product of those from outside the area), or perhaps they are of those best-defined as being deeply versed in the specific regionality of their cultural lineage….lineages which have very, very long memories. The identities of these various lineages are all about what they have survived as a people, and what they believe is their due as a member of their specific cultural group. Regardless, they all had/have ideas about this land & their place in it. That’s the thing about ideas, though. Ultimately, there is no telling what the differences b/w the idea & the reality will be when an idea is attempted to be manifested into the actual existence we all share. Humans have a way of being idealistically unrealistic, screwing up their opportunities good & proper, & then refusing to acknowledge their errors. The point being that birthing ideas into reality is like raising children. One can do their best, but in the end who (or in this case, what) they turn out to be is not entirely in one’s control. Inevitably, even the best of situations, problems will arise, & if not dealt with intelligently & honestly, they will always, always fester into an angry infection…..& nothing with any lasting desirability comes from that.

The writing is often good, sometimes dry, but it is thorough & of a solid journalist background, while giving some leeway to breathe life into spare places where facts can not be fully known, or accounts disagree. The different groups & backgrounds can be easy to mix-up, but largely the important differences are not hard to keep straight. Overall it holds as a good read that serves to broaden an understanding of an area & it’s complexities, by focusing on the human roots from which it developed. I personally think there’s a decent movie that could be made from this.

4-stars only because the writing did sometimes prove a bit hard to follow or details difficult to keep clear, but given the nature of the material there really is only so much that could have been done about that. Fascinating characters, time-period, & subject matter, though.

Oh, I nearly forgot! There is a chapter entitled Hitler’s Yacht. What?! Yeah, that’s what I said right before I ignored my pre-determined cut-off point & read 2 more chapters further than I had planned before going to bed. I found it to be a fascinating surprise. So that’s a thing you can look for in your reading. Good times.

Sorry if some of that wording is unclear. I was having a hard time finding the right way to relay what I gathered from my reading. Better you should read it yourself. Hopefully someone will come along & lend better verbiage to what I was attempting to express.

[Leah M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an intriguing read. I listened to the audiobook, and Simon Vance did a wonderful job with the narration and the many terms in both Hebrew and Arabic, as well as smatterings of Yiddish, Russian, and the other languages that popped up throughout the story.

While I'm aware of what the Mossad is, I had no idea of the roots of it. And after watching a show about Eli Cohen, I was curious about the organization's roots. Today, I'm aware that more than half of the population of Israel is made up of Mizrahi Jews, but have only recently learned of the way that they were treated in the early days of the formation of the state, and this book certainly doesn't gloss over that. The Mizrahi Jews weren't treated equally and were definitely discriminated against in the early days, and that's described quite clearly in this story.

However, Jews from Arab countries offered immense value to what would eventually become the IDF and the Mossad, since they were fluent speakers of Arabic and were also well aware of Arabic customs in their own country, allowing them to easily pass amongst their neighbors as Arabs, something Ashkenazi Jews couldn't do. This was an important distinction, allowing them to pass as spies, a dangerous but vital function as Israel was struggling for its independence.

These brave men faced many struggles. Cut off from their families and communities, set adrift in countries hostile to them, far from the agency who had sent them off with little to no support, they were living lives were they weren't just pretending to be other people, but were also forced to disavow their own beliefs and profess hatred and murderous intent towards their own people. They had limited knowledge of what was actually happening in the burgeoning state of Israel, relying on only the Arab news reports of the war, and often witnessing open acts of violence towards fellow Jews.

In addition, they also saw some of their own fellow spies caught, tortured, and murdered in the line of duty. The material is well-researched, but aside from the interviews with the surviving member, it felt a little bit disconnected and dry. I struggled to feel a connection with the narrative, although the interviews made it feel more relatable, inserting the unique voice of the man behind the story.

[Elizabeth]

Title : Spies of No Country

By : Matti Friedman

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages : 245

Algonquin Books

March 5th 2019

This was sent to me unsolicited by the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion, which this will be ,

Book synopsis

Four Arab Jews emigrate to Israel in 1948, at the birth of the new nation. Recruited almost immediately to spy for Israel, they are sent back to Lebanon and elsewhere to pose as Arabs (which they actually are) and collect intelligence. They operate out of a kiosk in Beirut. It is dangerous work and they don't know to whom they are reporting; they don't know whether their information is useful; and by the end, they don't know who they have become. The unit--called the Arab Section--will eventually become the Mossad, Israel's vaunted intelligence agency.

Borderland is about the disguises and identities of particular spies, but it's also about how Israel itself has assumed a false or misleading identity. Israel presents itself as European country when in fact it's comprised of Middle Easterners like the men in this story. And, according to Matti Friedman, that partially explains the politics of the country and why it often baffles the West. With writing that is both stunning and journalist, Borderland gives us a window into the past and the future of the Middle East



My thoughts
Rating: DNF at only 55 pages in it

Would I recommend it : No

Will I pick any thing else up by this author : No

Why : This book reads like it all about politics , not only that there was comments in it that was insulting and before anyone says anything I even showed those comments to a friend and she agreed with me on that.Not only was it insulting but it was also uneven with an irregular structure resulting from the mashing together of personal accounts, historical documentation, and the author’s occasionally inserted opinions that it mad it confusing to read and that was just in the first 55 pages I've read,if it like that in those first couple of pages then it'll be like that though out the book. just trying to figure out what was being said and try to get over the comments was giving me a headache and with that being said I'm DNF it 100% .

[Naomi Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before there was Fouda, there were these guys. But unlike that awful show (violence and moral relativism are unappealing), Friedman presents us with the complex identity of Jewish people. Whereas the world now looks at Israelis as European colonisers, most are actually Middle Eastern. But this book is of course way more than an answer to identity politics currently at play. Friedman revives an important and neglected aspect of modern Israeli history- the crucial role of young Jewish Mizrahi men as spies for a country on the brink of its inception that was dominated at its upper echelons by Jews of Ashkenazi descent.
Here's an interesting quote from the book:

"Gamliel of Damascus saw the 1948 war differently than a Palmach fighter from Warsaw, even though they were on the same side. That's because Israel is more than one thing. It's a refugee camp for the Jews of Europe. And it's a minority insurrection inside the world of Islam."

Another oddity of history is the story in this book about how young Syrian Jews blew up Hitler's yacht moored in the port at Beirut.

Israel is often depicted as a haven for Jews adrift after the destruction of Jewish life in Europe. But with the establishment of the state of Israel, the door slammed shut on Jewish life in Islamic countries, and they, too, came pouring into the new state in their ancient homeland.

This piece of the book stood out in light of the recent events we have experienced is what a former spy had to say about the supposed imminent peace in the 1990s:

"You need to think a great deal, and sometimes to put yourself in their place. It doesn't make me someone who wants peace at any price...If 90 percent of the Arab population wants to live with us in peace, and work with us, and make a living for their family by working for Jews or with Jews, or any way they want, it's enough to have ten percent who will shoot someone here or there, kill one person here and two there, in order for evil winds to blow on both sides...The control is in the hands of the extremists with whom you have no common language. They live on a completely different level, I don't mean in terms of morality. They read their religion in completely different letters."

This book is a timely reframing of Israel's history and its identity, and it is done through the exciting lens of espionage.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Spies of No Country" is the story of four Jewish men who could pass as Arab and were able to move through the world assuming Arab identities. This book covers two different chapters: one when these men were spying back before Israel existed as a state and then after Israel became a state and they continued their spying in Beirut. This was a fascinating book that gives you just a taste of everything that these men went through.

Spies are always interesting to me, especially when they are able to pass seamlessly into the environments that they find themselves spying in. I had never given much thought to what it would take for a spy to go unnoticed in a place such as Palestine during and just after World War II. The tension there would have been massive and the entire environment would have been so unstable.

I enjoyed learning about these men and I appreciated that Friedman was able to count on firsthand interviews from one of the men (that research is absolutely priceless!!!). I did wish that the book included more detail. In many ways, the book is a collection of missions. I wanted to know a little more context but I always appreciate when a book whets my appetite to go do more research on my own. This was a solid non-fiction!

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book serves as many things, and does them well. It gives a remarkable view into how spycraft was conducted by pioneers who felt they absolutely couldn’t fail, despite having negligible formal training… and how their personalities and interests impacted the future of the State of Israel. It’s quite the spy thriller — but in many ways more captivating than you could expect from fiction. It spotlights the complex and frictioned relationships between Jews, Arabs, British officials, foreign workers, and others in the land around the time of the state’s founding — and how those dynamics and violence affected these groups and the future… All while Friedman makes you feel like you were right there on the street or in the taxi, smelling the scents and feeling the emotion as it was probably happening, and understanding what these moments would mean in the greater context of history. It’s a page turner.

Friedman offers important insight about how Israel’s founding is not just tied to Ashkenazi or European roots, and that Jews from the Middle East (and specifically the Arab and Islamic worlds) have been integral to the founding and story of Israel. This should be expected for a diverse people with such a historical presence around the Levant, but is too often overlooked.

But as another wise reviewer noted, after reading this immensely well researched and polished piece, one simply can’t remain naïve enough to believe that the Jews could have done anything leading to Arab states recognizing their indigenous homeland as Jewish land. This is apparent from the brutal tensions and geopolitics playing out in these years, and because the grave threats to Jews did not abruptly start at this time (or start because of movements to recognize the state). These realities run counter to the narratives that many promote under BDS and “Free Palestine” banners, but the book would have to be classified as historical fiction if it illustrated events differently.

In an time where there is growing confusion about what constitutes “research,” Friedman went to incredible lengths to source background and specifics, to interview history makers and fellow researchers, and to credibly connect the dots to paint an authentic picture. The global community and Israel itself are fortunate for it.


~~~~~~~~~~
“Placing the Jews of the Islamic world at the center of Israel’s story helps illuminate a few misunderstood aspects of the conflict here, like the intense animosity in the region toward Israelis as intruders—‘Crusaders’ or ‘colonialists.’ In Cairo, for example, there’s a giant painted panorama celebrating the Egyptian army’s crossing of the Suez Canal in the 1973 war, and Israeli soldiers you see in various abject poses, surrendering to heroic Egyptians, are blond. That’s funny, because if you’ve ever seen real Israeli soldiers, you know that many of them look a lot like Egyptians. In fact, some of the Israeli soldiers at the Suez Canal undoubtedly were Egyptians.”

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 This book written by Canadian journalist Matti Friedman begins in 1948 as the state of Israel is emerging. Jewish survivors of WW2 are arriving to the promised land of Israel while Jews living in surrounding Arab countries are being displaced and moving to the region. The Arab countries are aligning against the emerging state with an increase in violence and show of military force. This is the backdrop to the story of 4 young Arabic speaking Jewish men recruited to be spies for the Palamach - Arab Section, the predecessor to the Mossad.

The writing style is more journalistic and although not as eloquent as some of my recent reads it certainly tells an important story. (The reason I did not give it 4 stars)

Mr. Friedman has not only shared an important part of Israeli history he has opened my eyes and helped me understand the underlying conflicts and challenges in Israel today.

[Amanda Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for all the Free Palestine blowhards who think history began in 1948. I am so tired of all the social justice warriors who haven’t ventured far enough outside of their Western bubbles to understand that there is no course of action that the Zionists could have taken that would have resulted in the Arabs recognizing a single inch of the British Mandate of Palestine as Jewish land.

“In the 1990s, when many Israelis believed a peace agreement with the Arab world was imminent, Gamliel suspected it was not. The Jews who came to Israel from the Islamic world brought a deep distrust of that world; and the knowledge that nothing good befalls the weak.”

[Oren Mizrahi · Rating 2 out of 5]

meandering. boring. not sure what it wants to be.

is it history? is it memoir, is it a drama? is it a review of primary sources? what is this?

the timeline is all over the place, and the story line is incredibly confusing. the few times i managed to follow it, it was boring. no color, no personality.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appropriately, Friedman begins his book: “…time spent with old spies is never time wasted.” Interviewing members of a unique branch of the Palmuch during Israel’s War of Independence, Friedman focuses on four spies in particular. They are part of the Arab Section, and elite team of Mizrahi Jews who could pose as Arabs behind enemy lines, gathering intelligence and coordinating sabotage (more of the former than the latter). “The Arab Section was an outlier in the Palmach, a curious feature.”

The first half of the book didn’t give me a true sense of an Arab Jew’s unique position in Israeli culture until Chapter 18: The Jewish State made that very clear. “People trying to forge a Jewish state in the Middle East could be helpful. The newcomers might have been invited to serve as equal partners in the creation of a new society, but they weren’t. Instead they were condescended to, and pushed to the fringes. It was one of the state’s worst errors, one for which we’re still paying.”

These four agents, who spent most of their time with the Arab Section in Beirut, had families still in Syria or Yemen. Eventually, the war would become personal: “The lives of a million Jews in Muslim countries would be jeopardized by the establishment of a Jewish state.” This spurred a mass migration of Jews in Arab countries to Israel. “…Israel is more than one thing. It’s a refugee camp for the Jews of Europe. And it’s a minority insurrection inside the world of Islam.” While I got a sense of the individual men characterized, it took a while for the narrative to gain momentum. Otherwise, it gave me a new perspective into the earliest intelligence endeavors of the infant nation.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.

[Alec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike the last book I read about part of the history of Israel (Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East), this book did a much better job of bringing the human element to the forefront. By doing this, Matti Friedman added context to what I was reading and made the history of the founding of modern Israel come to life a powerful way. Reading this book made me want to learn even more about this complicated region.

The book primarily focuses on four men who served in the Arab Section of the fledgling Israeli intelligence service. These men were all born in the Middle East and became refugees in large part because of the Zionist movement and the founding of Israel. The book's title hints at one of the more profound takeaways from the book, many of the Jews involved in the founding of the state of Israel ended feeling like they'd become unwelcome in their home countries and second class citizens in Israel itself. It added yet another layer to an already complicated region.

I'd 100% recommend this book to those interested in understanding more about Israel. It piqued my curiosity to read more and understand an even broader perspective. These last two books have been about Israel, but there's another group who deserves consideration and understanding, the Palestinians. I'm not sure reading more will make things clear, but I'll sure I'll develop compassion and an expanded worldview.

[Steve Cran · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the pre-state days of the Palestine Mandate, years before the creation of the Modern State of Israel there was constant fighting between Jews and Arabs. While during the day to day routine they worked and lived side by side but as things progressed relations began to deteriorate.

The Yishuv or prestate government ran the Jewish settlement and the Hagannah was the self defense force for the Jews. The striking arm was called the Palmach. By and large these Jews had socialist.communist leanings. They were secular and very European. Events in Europe propelled them to Palestine. Yet as fighting increased and more lives were lost the Zionists needed a set of eyes within the Arab world to gather intelligence and to commit acts of espionage.

To get those spies in on the Arab side the Palmach created a division to infiltrate the other side. This unit was called the “Dawn” it was comprised of Mizrachi or Middle Eastern Jews who could look and act Arabic. This unit would operate both within the Palestinian Arab community and within the Arab world at large. The book focuses on 4 of them. They formed Beirut unit and sent messages via Morse code. All 4 of them had family from the Middle East.

Among some of the operation they performed were 2 inside pre-state Palestine. One operation involved the attempted assassination of a terrorist leader/preacher, which ultimately failed but in the end scared the fanatic into silence. Another operation involved hearing about an ambulance that was going to be rigged with bombs and set off to blow up in the Jewish areas. They blew it up in the garage killing the mechanic and other Palestinian fighter.

Most of their action though takes place in Beirut where they assumed the identity of Palestinian refugees. They ran the Three Moon kiosk and gathered tidbit of information which they radioed back to Palmach. Among some of their exploits are blowing up a ship and attempting to blow up a refinery only too have it cancelled at the last minute.

The book gives good insight into their lives and backgrounds. The scene in Palestine is described as well. Great book and too bad it was not longer.

[RMazin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the spring of 1948 Israel and the Arab world are engaged in war. The British have recently pulled out. The Arab countries are aligning against the emerging state of Israel. European survivors are coming into the land of Israel. They are survivors hoping to build a Jewish homeland, in spite of the threats around them. It is a perilous time. What is needed is information. What is happening in the adjacent Arab nations? What is the political threat? Which leaders are the people rallying around? Are there armaments? Where will they strike? How can Israel (with few resources) stop them?

Matti Friedman researches the lives of four spies, who served the interests of Israel, through great hardship and danger to themselves. These were not European Jews, but Jews whose families lived among the Arabs. Nor were they professional spies. They were young men. They spoke Arabic, knew its dialects and knew their customs. They were driven to be part of a new Israel nation, even though the incoming European Jews were sometimes at odds with them. These spies had few resources or means of communications to headquarters for further instructions or insight. They were cut-off from family and friends, and each other. If caught, they would be executed. Eventually, men of this caliber would become an agency like the Mossad.

Friedman gives voice to these men and tells their stories through documents, interviews and witnesses woven into a fascinating and harrowing story. He also explores the Middle Eastern roots of Israel society, which is so often depicted as a European formed country in the Western press/ histories. This is an essential book for all those interested in learning about the past and how it echoes down to issues in Israel today. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for a copy of this title.

[Aryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spies of No Country makes good on the title, while diving into the political and ideological issues at the heart of the creation of the State of Israel. The style of Friedman’s work displays his training as a journalist, with narrative prose augmented by personal interviews. The result is a compelling assortment of portraits and anecdotes.

The premise of Spies of No Country is a description of what it meant to be a spy for the Land of Israel while Palestine was still a British protectorate. Within the Palmach, a branch of the fighting forces for the hoped for state, was a group called the Arab Section. Comprised of individuals who were born in the Arabic-speaking world, the purpose of the group was to become “One who becomes like an Arab,” and pass as Islamic citizens. Essentially, these individuals were to assume deep cover and report on sentiment about the war over Palestine/the Land of Israel, and conduct operations as necessary. While extensive training was provided about the appropriate mannerisms and customs that relate to life as a Muslim in the Arabic-speaking world, these young men and women were not the spies of cinematic fame. They weren’t prepared for commitments of living a lie in hostile countries for years, and many of the safeguards the layperson may take for granted, such as not knowing the true identities of your fellow spies, were not in place.

The book focuses on a cell within Beirut,and although a demolitions expert is among those profiled, this isn’t a story of high-octane adventure. As Friedman points out in a number of cases, this isn’t the story of a movie - this is the real world, and in the real world, intelligence work comes with periods where nothing exciting happens, aside from the pressure of living a lie every minute of every day. What I found more interesting and memorable than the exploits of the agents were the discussions around the internal politics of the nascent state, preconceptions about how the rest of the area would react to the creation of a Jewish state, and some of the roots of the conflict that still rages.

Final verdict: Not a book for adventure junkies, but a winner for those interested in the people around historical events.

I was provided with a review copy by the publisher via NetGalley.