Passport Control

by Gila Green

Miriam Gil knows little about Israel. Her father won’t talk about his life there or the brother he left behind when he came to Canada. Hurt and angry when he tells her to move out to make room for his new girlfriend, she enrolls in an Israeli university. She falls in love with Guy, a former combat soldier who dreams of peace.
Miriam is caught off guard when her visa and passport application are rejected on the grounds that she’s suspected of being a Syrian Christian. In rapid order, the university boots her out, her one friend is killed in a brawl, and Miriam is accused of murder by Israeli police.
Despite troubling revelations about her father’s past, Miriam must reconcile with him if she is to prove her innocence, reclaim her life, and hang on to her new found love.

359 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2018

About the author

Gila Green, the author of six novels, presents her latest work With A Good Eye, a coming-of-age thriller featuring a daring heroine who must navigate life with her always-on-stage actress mother and PTSD-stricken father. This novel explores the poignant question: do any of us ever really leave home? Her anticipated sixth novel, The Inheritance, is set for publication in 2025. In this work a cryptic text pulls Gila's heroine into a past she'd left behind.

Gila's previous works include the novel-in-stories White Zion, and two adult novels, Passport Control and King of the Class. She has also published dozens of short stories and articles in various literary magazines and anthologies. Her environmental young adult novel, No Entry, published in Australia, follows a strong heroine who confronts a murderous poaching ring.

As the daughter of a Yemenite-Israeli father and an Ashkenazi-Canadian mother, Gila's writing often delves into themes of racism, alienation, and immigration. In her spare time, she shares author interviews, book reviews, and writer resources on her website. Visit her site to learn more!

Reviews

[Gila Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book started as a short story in a writing class when I was pregnant with my fourth child. It got under people's skin even then, which prompted me to expand it. Soon it was a novella, a 100 pages.

As time passed, it became a novel but it remained explosive as it was when it was only a dozen pages scribbled out between nursing sessions with my daughter.
Passport Control started as a story in my head loosely based on an experience I had myself while studying at Haifa University decades ago, as a young Canadian student, like my heroine Miriam Gil. But it evolved into much more, a story webbed with family secrets and betrayal all weighed down by the question of identities and loyalties so complicated in today's world.
I invite you to read it and let me know what you think about Miriam and her encounters with the 'other' in a strange land that is at the same time so familiar.

[David Pezza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Green offers a unique and riveting journey of a young women transitioning between different worlds. Miriam Gil is alienated by her father in Canada and opts for a year abroad at the University of Haifa in Israel. Once she arrives, her entire world begins to crumble around her. The politics and violence between jewish and Arab Israelis and revelations about her own family’s history challenges Miriam while she discovers Israel’s stark and historic beauty.

Green presents this tumultuous world with a deft hand and a curiosity that endears the reader to her beloved Israel.

[Daniel Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this novel. I kept thinking it would make an excellent play. It will also make you very hungry!

[Miryam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realty enjoyed Passport Control not least because I teach at the University of Haifa which is where Green's protagonist, Miriam, lands when she arrives in Israel. Miriam's story was very moving. Her pain and needs were palpable and often heart breaking. I love literature about the insider-outsider tension and the novel captured this really well. This is a well told story about a young woman searching for her place in the world, within her family, and trying to put together the pieces of her identity.

[Pinar Tarhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved Passport Control (aff.link). It was interesting to follow the (mis)adventures of Miriam. She is certainly an engaging and relatable protagonist. Usually, when I read first-person POVs, I’m left wondering what it would be like to get in the head of other characters. I’m more into omniscient storytelling in both what I read and write. But Miriam delivered. I didn’t feel the need to know the inner workings of other characters’ minds.

This is not to say the novel doesn’t feature interesting secondary characters. It certainly does. But none are as vulnerable, relatable, and interesting as Miriam.

I keep mentioning how relatable Miriam is, even though we have more differences than similarities.

For instance, I’ve felt like a fish out of water when I spent a term with four roommates in my university’s dormitory, but these people were from the same country. I was in the city I was born and raised in. They shared the same religion (or at least the lack of it). We were the same age. But still, culturally and personally, we couldn’t be more different. I felt completely alone until I found my own people, and that took a while. But Gila Green has captured those feelings so well. (Conversely, I spent two semesters in another country with people from all over the world. I’d never felt more at home.)

There are other aspects of the story where I felt her pain about the actions of some family members, as well the pain of passport troubles, but I’m not going to reveal who and what. We can discuss privately after you’ve read the novel.

The title of the novel is just perfect. It is relevant and catchy without revealing any of the twists. But it makes even more sense after you learn more and more.

To sum it up, I recommend this emotional page-turner. In addition to the tensions, drama, and conflicts, it is a fun read that makes you look forward to reading more from Gila Green.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not very well versed in Jewish and Middle Eastern culture and politics. And while some of the historically impactful events the author refers to throughout this book were familiar to me, I'm relieved to say that my general lack of cultural awareness did not hinder my enjoyment of Passport Control in the least. In fact, it was quite easy to fall in love with the story.

From the first few pages, I found myself immersed in Miriam Gil's life - I wanted to comfort her, guide her, warn her to take care and caution with the decisions she faced, and admonish her when she didn't. I celebrated her bravery, tenacity, and heart. I was utterly taken with the beauty of Israel as so thoughtfully presented through Miriam's eyes, and by contrast, the conflict that existed within. Miriam left Canada a young, (somewhat sheltered) Canadian Jew but returned a Canadian-born Israeli.

In the acknowledgments, Ms. Green writes that in its various stages of becoming a novel, Passport Control "[got] under some people's skin." And that's precisely what it did to me. I genuinely look forward to reading more from Gila Green...perhaps a sequel to Passport Control?

[Yehudit Levinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always on the lookout for Israeli authors in English, (either originally or translated) this book caught my eye. Although published in 2018, I was only able to get a hold of a copy in 2025.
I would classify this story as a 'coming of age' novel. Miriam, the protoganist going into her third year of college in Canada, is being kicked out of her home with her father by his girlfriend. In a state of youthful rebellion, she decides to do a junior year abroad in Israel because her father is Israeli and Israel offers tuition grants to overseas students.
Orphaned from her mother 6 years ago, Miriam has never divulged from her father his Israeli background. Having little to any knowledge of Israel or why her father left, she plunges forward with her plans landing at Haifa University September 1992.
Having an Israeli father, she is legally obliged to travel to and from Israel on an Israeli passport, something she was only made aware of after arriving in Israel. Upon applying for the passport, a pandora's box opens up, causing her to discover her father's past and its effects on her.
The story was able to paint the political scene in Israel in 1992/3 very descriptively. But Miriam comes across as an undecided, inquisitive youth bouncing around not knowing where the next step will be.
The writing style did not hold me and the plot took too long to take off. Green writes a lot about Miriam's roommates and the conflicts between them; Miriam's indecision in how to cope with it all. In the main story of Miriam, I couldn’t find the relevance of all this college youth bickering.

[Ondine Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The vivid characters have stayed with me and the writing is superb. It brings up many issues within Israel in a way that makes the reader consider and think critically. Looking forward to reading more by Gila.

[Meryl Ain · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a great novel about Israel, Passport Control is the novel for you. Told from the first person perspective of Miriam Gil, a Canadian student in the early '90s, it mesmerized me from the first page to the very end. Author Gila Green's characters (including Israel itself) are real and alive. She transports us to the sights, smells and tastes of Israel in such a vivid way that they jump off the page. This is a must-read story involving family secrets, friendship, romance, questions of identity and politics.

[Julie Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passport Control is highly entertaining and very readable which is about the best review one can leave behind for a book. I carted it around with me everywhere for three days and got back to it the minute I could. I am usually more of a literary book hound, one who frequently chooses from the bestseller lists, so Passport Control is not my usual fare, but I'm very glad I read it and made short work of it. Green plunges headlong into the story and never lets you go. There is never a dull moment or a moment without captivating details. What I particularly enjoyed was how Green has enough respect for the reader to allow the reader fill in backstory and context as the story unfolds rather than beating us over the head with various facts or opinions to orient us in this world. The story is told through Miriam's point of view and as with any single character, of course, Miriam's point of view is limited, owing in this case, to her age. But it's Miriam's story and Green tells it in a deeply feeling way that moves along quite briskly. The end result makes Passport Control a refreshing book to read; it is imperfect (I felt the ending comes rather abruptly, for example) but it is good, old-fashioned storytelling, a real page-turner with honest moments and memorable scenes. I think it needs a sequel, truth be told.