The Red Balcony

by Jonathan Wilson

It’s 1933, and Ivor Castle, Oxford-educated and Jewish, arrives in Palestine to take up a position as assistant to the defense counsel in the trial of the two men accused of murdering Haim Arlosoroff, a leader of the Jewish community in Palestine whose efforts to get Jews out of Hitler’s Germany and into Palestine may have been controversial enough to get him killed.

While preparing for the trial, Ivor, an innocent to the politics of the case, falls into bed and deeply in love with Tsiona, a free-spirited artist who happened to sketch the accused men in a Jerusalem café on the night of the murder and may be a key witness. As Ivor learns the hard way about the violence simmering just beneath the surface of British colonial rule, Jonathan Wilson dazzles with his mastery of the sun-drenched landscape and the subtleties of the warring agendas among the Jews, Arabs, and British.

And as he travels between the crime scene in Tel Aviv and the mazelike streets of Jerusalem, between the mounting mysteries surrounding this notorious case and clandestine lovemaking in Tsiona’s studio, Ivor must discover where his heart lies: whether he cares more for the law or the truth, whether he is more an Englishman or a Jew, and where and with whom he truly belongs.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Jewish, Book Club, Middle East, Historical, Judaism

ebook

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Jonathan Wilson is a British-born writer and professor who lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

Jonathan Wilson is the author of seven books: the novels The Hiding Room and A Palestine Affair, a finalist for the 2004 National Jewish Book Award, two collections of short stories Schoom and An Ambulance is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble, two critical works on the fiction of Saul Bellow and most recently a biography, Marc Chagall, runner-up for the 2007 National Jewish Book Award. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Best American Short Stories, among other publications, and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate, Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Humanities at Tufts University.

Wilson also writes a column on soccer for the Internet Newspaper, The Faster Times.

Reviews

[Mai H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't mind me reading too many books about Palestine concurrently, and further confusing myself. While it's difficult to get an unbiased historical account, I am quite enjoying this array of historical fiction.

I'm not sure which of you tagged this as a thriller. It's more of a typical murder mystery where Arlosoroff is murdered, an Arab is paid to confess, and chaos ensues. I was fine with Ivor's account, but the Tsiona subplot bored me.

To me, settler colonialism is always wrong, and the more I read about history, the more names and countries I see time and again. In this case, Britain.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I know how it's like to fall in love and then get shut out of it completely. Ivor Castle was a lawyer and a Jew, he was take part in the Arlosoroff trial. A potential witness, Tsiona Kerem, was a woman the police had somehow overlooked. Ivor was infatuated with her when he met her and they made love the first night, it was her birthday party. Off an on they met for a few months yet he couldn't get her to testify. In the next few weeks he met a cousin of Charles Gross from America called Susannah and they had a platonic relationship. It was an up and down thing about the trial trying to get the people to testify. Ivor was always infatuated with Tsiona and looking over his shoulder for her. In the end Ivor was left on his own. His boss found a type of requirement that required two testimonies and got his people off. I like this story very much and I recommend it. I didn't let any of the moments that happened in the story out, so read about them.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please see Goodreads summary above.
Ivor Castle is the innocent abroad in British Mandate Palestine, c. 1933.
Ivor is there to assist in the legal defense of two Russian Jews who allegedly murdered a Jewish diplomat. The diplomat, Arlosoroff, secured a deal with Hitler's government that would have allowed German Jews to emigrate to Palestine with the requisite fee: one thousand pounds (worth 90,000 pounds now with inflation!) per person, the requirement by the British based government for entry. The deal allowed for the fee to either be withdrawn from the German Jews' own funds (the rest of which would be seized by the Nazis), or with outside help (spoiler alert). In exchange, the boycott of German goods in Palestine would be lifted.
It truly is a Deal with the Devil , but may have been the only way to get German Jews safely away to Palestine.
Ivor really is a babe in the woods. He is Jewish, but was raised in England, where he experienced some anti-Semitism, but nothing even remotely approaching what Jews were experiencing in early 1930's Germany (and this was just the beginning of Hitler's reign of terror). Ivor does not understand the fraught politics of the region: Jew against Jew, and almost all Jews against Arabs and vice-versa.
Because of his obliviousness his character becomes sort of an Everyman witness to already existing conflicts in British Palestine.
One source of his detachment from reality: he falls hopelessly in love with a potential witness-not clear which side she is on-and he starts up a passionate affair with her. A HUGE ethics violation for an attorney on a case; yet he can't help himself (!).
As a lawyer myself, I really have no patience for Ivor's hopelessly in love excuse in the face of violating his duty as an attorney, but crows like that tend to come to roost.
Aside from the compelling nature of a murder trial, what is the real draw of this book is a peek into the early days of Palestine/Israel.
How little things have changed since the handoff to an independent Israel in 1948 and in the years since. All the same players were there in 1933. Of course the Holocaust heightened the sensitivities of everyone involved, as it should have.
The Israelis (who are not a homogenous group by any means) over the years have exerted greater influence in terms of acquisition of territory and the ability to defend themselves, but an Israel without sectarian violence has not been realized. I wonder if it ever will.
An important book. See the afterword for some useful references on the British Palestine years.

[Danielle McClellan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initially, I was impressed with the story which situates Palestine in the 1930s and relates an interesting legal drama based, apparently, on the real story of the murder of a man that was involved with negotiating with the German government for the release of a number of German Jews. In Palestine, he becomes reviled as a collaborator because he is willing to negotiate with the Nazi government, and he is shot upon his return to Palestine while he is walking with his wife along a beach. This to me was a fascinating set up: was he a collaborator or was this one case of "by any means necessary" as he was trying to get as many German Jews out of the country as he could? The trial element seemed to promise a really intelligent plot and discussion. Our young Oxford-educated protagonist, Ivor Castle, arrives from England to assist in the trial, and the first few chapters promise that we will begin to see the many sides of the trial and the region through his eyes.

However, the moment that Ivor goes to interview a young artist named Tziona who may have sketched the accused murderers in a cafe the evening of the murder (and thus may provide them with an alibi), the novel begins to falter. After spending a night with Tziona, Ivor Castle quickly turns into a mopy, jealous, obsessed man in love with a beautiful mysterious woman--and unfortunately the author began to get as obsessed with her as our main character is. Eventually it became clear to me that the legal drama was going to take a back seat to the somewhat predictable love story that we have seen all too often: elusive, mysterious woman vs. obsessed, heartsick man. (Sigh.)

That may not be completely fair. Other characters are introduced, and other subplots as well, but for this reader it felt like too little too late. By the time that I finished the book, I found that I cared very little about the outcome. The novel is certainly well written and has some subtlety about the various factions in Palestine at the time, but for this reader, the pacing is slow and uneven, and the story meanders.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC copy.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

An atmospheric mystery set in ‘30’s Palestine, providing a glimpse into the historic roots of the ongoing Arab/Israeli conflict.

[Howard Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Red Balcony (no idea where the title comes from) tells the story of a murder in Palestine in 1933 — a period in which German Jews are attempting to flee from Germany to escape to Palestine. The plot revolves around a British lawyer who is assisting in the defense of the 2 men accused of the murder of a Jewish man. There are many subplots involving the lawyer with an artist, a debutante and her family, the British and their attitudes toward emigrants, etc., all set against the background of Palestine. However, this reader found the story exceptionally dull and uninteresting and written with stilted phraseology leading this reader not to care about the outcome.
I thank NetGalley and Schocken Books for the opportunity to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Joe Shoenfeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conflicting reactions to this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed getting a sense of the time and place -- Palestine in the 1930s -- and the characters were well drawn. However, the plot is bound up with the politics of the time, complicated and divisive as they were, and the author does not do a good job of helping the uninformed reader make sense of them. Much of time I spent scratching my head trying to remember the political roles of the various characters and what they might mean for the plot.

[Mauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the topic. Palestine during holocaust efforts and barriers to saving Jewish people. The ending was hard for me. Many questions left unanswered for me. But it is a solid read I just like more closure in my books.

[JenniferAustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Wilson's literary thriller is a worthwhile read. The star of the show are the setting and the history. The place and time are fascinating, enough so that I did a little more digging into the history of Mandate Palestine and the Transfer Agreement, which surely marks a success for a historical novel.

The key event that kicks off the mystery really happened. In the summer of 1933, Zionist leader Haim Arlosoroff was shot by an assassin as he walked along a Tel Aviv beach with his wife. The ambiguity and confusion about who killed Arlosoroff remains today. Menachem Begin had a committee reexamine the case in 1982, but no new evidence was found to clear things up.

The protagonist, Ivor Castle, is sometimes interesting but sometimes simply tiresome. For me, the ethical quandries he got into as a result of falling in love with an artist became annoying. They do propel the plot and the character development, though. For me, the climax of the story felt a bit forced, because the action was moved along by a particularly poor love-above-all choice of Castle's.

I finished the book anyway, though. Castle aside, the murky world of Mandate Palestine in the 1930s was a world I was happy to explore, up to the end of the book.

For any audiobook fans, I particularly recommend the audio edition. Peter Noble's narration was excellent.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging thriller

[Bob T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story that somehow lacks the intrigue it promised.

[Sandi Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its 1933 and Ivor Castle, a lawyer who was educated in Oxford, left London to assistant the defense council for two men accused of murdering Haim Arlosoroff, in Tel Aviv. Haim Arlosoroff was a leader of a Jewish community in Palestine. At the brutal treatment of Jews in Germany, Haim's efforts were to get Jews out of Hitler's Germany and into Palestine, which was now under the British mandate, which caused him to have political enemies. The wife Sima Arlosoroff, the only witness told police the men who shot her husband were Arab but then recanted.

While preparing for the trial, Ivor, falls deeply in love with Tsiona, a free-spirited artist who happened to sketch the accused men in a Jerusalem café on the night of the murder and may be a key witness putting himself in danger. As he travels between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem he must make a decision whether he cares more for the law or the truth or consides himself as an Englishman or a Jew.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

solidly mediocre - kept waiting for it to get better to no avail

[None Ofyourbusiness Loves Israel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impeccably researched historical noir that transports the reader to the streets, smells, intrigues, politics and violence of British Mandatory Israel. Fast paced and lovely writing that reminded me of Oz just adds magic to this wonderful book. Excellent 👌

[Fran Hawthorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slow, evocative, historical novel that beautifully brings to life the spot of Earth today known as the State of Israel, in the period under British control between the World Wars. The heat, the sand, the brooding cultural tension, the sleepy villages, and the intertwined political hostilities are all rendered in quietly powerful language.

Allegedly, this is also a murder mystery, though that plotline all-but disappears for the first four-fifths of the book. The protagonist, a young British-Jewish lawyer named Ivor Castle, doesn’t seem to spend much time investigating clues that might prove the innocence of his two clients—or, for that matter, earning his salary.

When the story does pick up, it gallops quite nicely. But it’s not really the point.

Here's the setup: In the spring of 1933, a Zionist leader named Haim Arlosoroff was murdered on the beach at Tel Aviv after negotiating a controversial deal with Nazi Germany to allow significant emigration of German Jews, in return for a complicated financial payoff. The British Mandate authorities charged two members of a revisionist-Zionist organization that was a bitter enemy of Arlosoroff’s faction. (This part is historically accurate.) Those two accused men are Ivor’s clients.

The book’s chief weakness is Ivor’s hard-to-believe infatuation with the artist Tsiona, who comes across as a cliché of the unreliable temptress.

More important is the subtheme about the torn identity of being a Jew and an outsider in an era before there was an official Jewish state, never seeming to fit into any geographical location. Despite his Oxford degree, Ivor has always felt looked-down on by his British colleagues and classmates, yet the British Colonial territory of Palestine is unfamiliar to him. Other British-Jewish Colonial officials also seem half-accepted, half-outside.

While the novel’s main sympathies are clearly with its Jewish characters, it also has sympathy for the local Arabs and even (a bit) for the hapless British middle-managers.
In this book, as in life, love is complicated – whether it’s love for another person or for a land.

[Izzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Red Balcony by Jonathan Wilson
I gave it overall 3 stars; the plotting is rather serpentine but the historical setting seems well done, and reading this book set in 1933 is an interesting counterpoint to the Lighthouse at Stalingrad, which Izzy is also currently reading, which takes place 10 years later. It is fairly gratifying to read about Stalin’s generals outlasting the brutal assault at Stalingrad; the Jews in Palestine or Germany in 1933 could not have remotely anticipated how the next 10 years would develop although it was quite apparent that the Nazis would not be good for the Jews.
This book deals with the murder, most likely committed by “right winger-equivalents” who were, at the time, upset with the murdered Jew’s negotiations with the then new Nazi government in Germany. The intent of the negotiations was to relax the anti German boycott in an effort to try to extract German Jews with at least some of their money or property from an increasingly hostile, and persecutory government, and get them to Palestine under the exception that allowed Jews with 1000 £’s or more to get British visas. At the time (and since) the indigenous Arabs were less than pleased by having any more Jews come to Palestine.
There is some ambiguity as to whether Revisionist right wingers, or Arabs, or perhaps negligent hospital care is responsible for Arlosoroff death. His widow is quite flighty in her recollection of the assassins. There is also a British plot to bribe some jailed Arabs to confess to the assassination.
The novel’s protagonist, Ivor, is an important member of the legal defense team for the accused assassins; he is a British Jew, more Brit than Jew, and not too much of a Zionist; he loses his virginity to the artist who is an important witness for the defense. He also has a developing relationship with, Susannah, the American daughter of a wealthy Baltimore department store owner whose father is also negotiating with the Nazis.
The plot is over-complicated and the description of Ivor’s sighs and sweat and naked body is a distraction from the story that is developing about the trial and the attempt to portray the reality of the political issues that swirled in mandate Palestine in 1933.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

British Mandate Palestine, 1933. It's a hotbed of Arabs and Jews living together. The Red Balcony by Jonathan Wilson captures what it feels like to be deposited in the middle of a brewing storm but is still enamored by it all. Ivor Castle is a recent Oxford graduate, where he was only one of a handful of Jewish students. Through his father, a respected barrister, Ivor is in Palestine working as an assistant for a lawyer who is defending two suspects in a high-profile murder case. On a beach in Tel Aviv, Haim Arlosoroff, who has made a deal with Nazi Germany in order to stop the boycott of German goods and to get Jews out, was shot in front of his wife. Was it the two Russian Jews on trial, or Arabs, as Mrs. Arlosoroff reportedly said initially before changing her story? One of Castle's assignments is to interview an overlooked witness, Tsiona Kerem, a bohemian artist who is said to have been in a cafe in Jerusalem with the suspects at the time of the shooting. When Castle meets Tsiona, he is instantly infatuated with her, but the more he digs into her story, the less factual it becomes. And the more he experiences life in Palestine, the more he understands that he doesn't quite understand the full implications of it all. What initially is set up as what could be a political thriller becomes a political exploration of identity in a place where historically identity matters. By placing in a time of British rule and the gathering storm of war, Wilson is placing us into the same mind space of Castle, who has to acknowledge and deal with what he is experiencing and seeing. Is he British or is he a Jew. That's the central question Wilson forces Castle to consider. How much do we place on our born identities, and how much can we discard them when it seems convenient? The red balcony that Castle finds himself on (which is Tsiona's) offers him an expansive view on that.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is based on real historical events & characters in Mandate Palestine in the 1930s. At the centre is the assassination of Haim Arlosoroff -a left wing zionist Jew by 2 right wing revisionist Jews. At the time there was bitter conflict between the 2 political movements. Arlosoroff had managed to get Nazi Germany to allow the immigration of German jews to Palestine if they each could bring 1000 pounds intended to fund the soon to be born nation of Israel. The revisionists were strongly opposed to any deal with the Nazis. In the novel a young British Jewish lawyer Ivor Castle gets a job as assistant to the defense lawyer of the 2 accused & finds himself in the exotic setting of Palestine with its multiple problems-a floundering British administration , Arabs opposed to Jewish immigration, a divided Jewish community from many different nations & with different goals & a wide religious spectrum from secular to ultraorthodox- the left wing Jews supporting a 2 state solution & the revisionists wanting a biblical Israel, including transJordan,& free of Arabs. That division underlay modern Israel's current problems. In the book he recruits a beautiful woman painter Tsiona as a witness & becomes totally smitten by her. They have a brief passionate affair
though she has her own agenda. In the end he becomes a target of a shooting meant to kill Tsiona, losing an eye. The attempt to blame the Arsonoff murder on 2 Arabs falls apart, & the trial goes nowhere for lack of supportive documentation. In the end Ivor falls for an American Jewess, both having decided to remain in Palestine.

[Sherry Cohen · Rating 2 out of 5]

After watching The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, I was excited about the prospect of reading The Red Balcony. Sadly, I found the book underdeveloped, clunky, and contrived.

For starters, the main description about the British Mandate of Palestine is that it's always hot and muggy and everyone is perspiring. Wilson goes on and on about that. He rarely and ineffectively captures the tension that was there between the British, the Arabs, and the Jews. There are some clumsy explanations about the promises made to the people living there before and since the end of the Ottoman Empire.

The plot has only spotty plausibility - a bought confession to a murder, a retraction, political deals to get Jews out of Germany and to the British Mandate of Palestine. It might be better had it been character driven.

Ivor, the protagonist, is someone who never fits in anywhere, not in his home country of England, and not in the British Mandate, where he is sent by his father to defend two suspects to a murder. He is enraptured by artist Tziona and jealous of the man who is often with her. The title refers to the red balcony of her apartment, but there are hardly any references or significance to it. There is nothing satisfying in their relationship. Meanwhile, Ivor meets Susannah, the most likeable character in the book. She's fun and adventurous and comes from a prominent American family. But Ivor can't appreciate her because of his obsession with Tziona, who leaves. The trial is wrapped up in a neat little package, but there is no satisfactory ending.

The only reason I gave it two stars was because of the setting, and that was generous on my part.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan WIlson's story, The Red Balcony is a bout a Man named Ivor Castle who is British Mandate Palestine, around 1933, to assist in a legal defense of two Russian Jews who are accused of murdering a Jewish diplomat. That man had made a deal with Hitler, allowing German Jews to escape to Palestine for a fee of 1,000 pounds. In exchange Palestine would lift the boycott on German exports.

Ivor is Jewish, but has experienced very little anti-semetism, and doesn't understand the politics of the area. He hasn't seen the effects of Hitler's terrorism, or the difficulties of life in Palestine. He hasn't seen Jew against Jew, or Jew against Arab/Muslim. His innocence and naivety allows the character to represent all of us. He is constantly learning, and as we follow his story, so are we.

While in Palestine, Ivor falls in love with a potential witness, and begins a passionate affair. Of course this is a huge ethics violation, and I struggled with his choices and movements.

The story of the trial is gripping but what really made the book shine was the setting of time and place. The author really brought me into that world, and I came away with a better understanding of the region.

[Alec Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a very satisfying journey to "Mandate Palestine," i.e. Israel between the end of World War I and the formation of the State of Israel. The British administered (not enthusiastically) the territory at the behest of the League of Nations. Using a real life murder, Wilson explores the nuances between Jew, Arab and Brit and paints a vivid picture of the time and place.

In his acknowledgements, Wilson reveals that he put the novel down and picked it up again over Covid, and it explains my central criticism, which is that the 260 page novel is almost two books. The first, 150 pages, sometimes moves too slowly but this gives us a chance to learn the time and place. The last 110, however, can blaze by. New characters drop in and play important parts. One senses that they may not have existed in the author's mine when he wrote the first part.

Still, for those interested in Middle East history in particular, the Red Balcony is a delightful trip to the 1930s mandate. Wilson has done his research and real figures make appearances to give a rich texture to the twisting murder case and the newly minted lawyer deputed to assist the defense.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this book on my Kindle and couldn't get into it. But then several trusted sources told me it was worth reading so I tried it on audio. Wilson starts with the assassination of Haim Arlosoroff who was gunned down while walking with his wife on the beach in Tel Aviv beach in June 1933 after he negotiated a controversial agreement with Nazi Germany in exchange for allowing more Jews to flee the country (a significant historical event). The novel's main character is Ivor Castle, a (presumably fictional) young British Jewish lawyer, who is assigned to help defend the two Russian Jews charged with the murder. But he falls hopelessly and helplessly (and annoyingly!) in lust with the first witness he interviews. The historical details, and some of the secondary characters, were interesting but I found it all hard to follow. And, I have little tolerance for weak men who become too eaily infatuated with manipulative women. The narrator was good (and only botched a few of the Hebrew terms) and I listened to the whole book but I didn't particularly enjoy it.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The divisions between the Palestinian Arabs and immigrant or refugee Jews is present in this novel, but treated very lightly, with no real mention of Palestinians being displaced by the Jews. A description of architecture and street scenes in Tel Aviv leaves out the fact that Jewish neighborhoods of Tel Aviv are built on top of destroyed Palestinian villages or that Palestinians were evicted from their homes.

This could have been woven into the novel even if it wasn’t the the predominant conflict of the story: that between Zionist Jews and Revisionist Jews of the time. I found the Jews’ differing visions of an emerging nation interesting. I learned a lot.

Aside from the implausible and cringe-worthy romantic scenes at the beginning, the story and the writing was engaging as the novel progressed. Toward the end, there was a complexity and authenticity, so different from the stilted interactions and caricatures of the earlier chapters.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting: Palestine, 1933. “Each day more and more [Jews] poured off the boats, Germans, Poles, the persecuted horde with no place else to go. Each landing of an immigrant ship was trumpeted enthusiastically in the Jewish press while the Arabs observed the new arrivals with suspicion and anger and the British paused in their offices and mess halls, lifted their pens and their mugs of tea, gazed from on high over the proceedings, and thought, How the hell are we going to manage this?” (118) In this context a controversial Jewish official is assassinated and two Jewish men are charged with the murder, an actual historical event. This story is told from the perspective of (though in third person) an assistant to the lawyer charged with defending the accused. It reminds me of a Graham Greene novel, with its story of an innocent abroad, an English Jew who feels uncomfortable in both roles and who faces a series of moral dilemmas. A rewarding read.

[Dave Osborne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wilson’s 2023 book is a brew of historical fiction, legal drama, and romance. I was unaware of the 1933 murder of Haim Arlosoroff near Tel Aviv and the subsequent trial which portends the changes of the political landscape of British Mandate of Palestine. In that regard, I did appreciate learning about this single incident which had imbedded in it the complexities of the Jewish-Palestinian claims to the land and the differing viewpoints among Jews of their intent for and vision of those claims.
The book, however, is weighted toward romance and less toward historical fiction. The title, itself, is a reference to a sensual relationship. I suppose readers need the romance as an inducement to stay with the complexities of the political and legal layers of the actual events, but I was disappointed in Wilson’s reliance on the romance narrative.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Wilson’s legal thriller “The Red Balcony” (Schocken Books) is the most serious novel in this review. It focuses on life in 1933 Palestine when the British administration was trying to balance the demands of the Jewish community for increased immigration of Jews from Europe with the Arab preference for the status quo. The plot is partly based on the real-life assassination of Haim Arlososoff, a leader of the Labor Zionist Movement who’d been working with Nazi Germany to allow Jews to emigrate to Palestine.
To read the rest of my review, visit https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...

[Yasmina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Palestine under the British Mandate in 1933 was a country in turmoil. The country was full of intrigue as Jews, Arabs, and the British were all pushing their own agenda. Ivor Castle, a young Jewish lawyer, arrives from London ready to help defend two men accused of assassinating Haim Arlosoroff. Arlosoroff had just completed negotiating with the Nazis to allow more German Jews to immigrate to Palestine. Of course, not everyone is happy with this deal. The strength of this novel lies in Wilson’s descriptions of the land, the people and the turmoil occurring. Unfortunately, Ivor actions and encounters were in my opinion highly improbable given the time period and the social mores at the time. This diminishes the believability of the story.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

As captivating and engaging as the beguiling storyline is in "the red balcony," author Jonathan Wilson's novel should be valued because it's truly literature.
Wrapped around an era of historic yet-under-recognized import — the 1930s of the British Mandate governing of Palestine — is an event the conclusion of which readers will stay up nights to discover, characters whose "real story" readers will yearn to know, and history readers will find enlightening, all delivered in polished sentences, beautifully paced storytelling, and believable dialog that readers have come to understand is what defines literature.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

First I admit I couldn't finish this. I need to lookup the review I read about this and never listen to the reviewer again. To me this was a book written by a thirteen year old boy for other thirteen year old boys. We are talking about the main male character, an adult, having a one night stand leading to fantasying over the women with all that goes into that including self gratification if you get my drift.

So for the 50 plus pages I did read, the main character was boring with no reason to like or sympathize with him. I see where Goodreads had it rated at 3.7 starts. I only hope it got better after I put it down for good.

Don't waste your precious time on this one.

[Jim McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to both entice me to read on and, at the same time, to startle me with a story line that felt awkward. Laced with dialog that didn’t ring true to me and interactions between characters that appeared inconsistent with what you’d expect. What I most enjoyed was the historical aspects that could have been further developed, the trial, why our main character was in Palestine, was given little attention as the author veered more toward the story of a shallow, late adolescent love affair.