The Covenant

Rating:
Summary: Can hope and love defeat terror and hatred?
Review: How can the Israeli people survive when brutal enemies surround them? The Palestinian terrorists are willing to commit any atrocity, including strapping explosives to themselves and detonating bombs in public places, in order to destroy and demoralize the Jewish people. The issue of terrorism and its consequences drives the new and timely novel, "The Covenant," by Naomi Ragen.

Ragen draws a parallel between the Nazi terror during World War II and the Intifada in the Middle East. Four women, Leah, Maria, Ariana, and Esther, met in Auschwitz, and they made a covenant that if they survive, they will join their lives together forever. They do survive, and many years later, the four elderly women are in touch sporadically. Leah's granddaughter, Elise Margulies, is living in Maaleh Sara, Judea, with her family. Elise is devastated when Hamas terrorists kidnap her husband, Dr. Jonathan Margulies, and their daughter, Ilana. Elise is pregnant and is in fragile health. She knows that the Israeli authorities have a policy of not giving in to the terrorists' demands. What will become of her family?

Fortunately, grandmother Leah has powerful friends in the Covenant. Esther Gold has made a fortune in the cosmetics industry and Ariana Feyder is a woman of vast influence who owns an exclusive cabaret in Paris. Both women marshal their considerable forces to find Dr. Margulies and Ilana before it is too late.

"The Covenant" works on some levels better than others. Ragen's characters too often border on caricature. The idea of rich and influential Jewish matrons who, with a few phone calls, can move mountains is an irritating stereotype. A heavy-handed subplot deals with an aggressive and ambitious British reporter named Julia Greenberg who sympathizes with the Palestinian cause. Will she get her comeuppance?

The most effective flashbacks are those that take place in Auschwitz. To research the events in this infamous concentration camp, Naomi Ragen listened to taped interviews by survivors who recorded their memories for the Shoah Visual History Foundation and for Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The scenes in Auschwitz are poignant and heartbreaking.

The rest of the book is uneven. There are too many characters and too many storylines and the book eventually loses some of its focus. Ragen describes in detail how the terrorists plan to carry out their nefarious schemes. In another subplot, the author explores the isolated life of Esther's granddaughter, Elizabeth, who has converted to Islam and spends six months a year in Saudi Arabia as the wife of a wealthy Arab, Whalid Ibn Saud. Ragen also includes a young man named Milos, a Catholic filmmaker, who is the grandson of Maria, a member of the Covenant. Maria convinces Milos to do whatever he can to help Elise.

"The Covenant" would have been more effective had Ragen pared her story down to its essentials. She goes too far afield, flitting from one place to another and from one character to another, and this reduces the story's impact. I wholeheartedly agree with her message that terrorism is a cruel and inhuman way to make a political point. However, a work of fiction must stand on its own, and cannot be judged on whether the author's heart is in the right place.


Rating:
Summary: A must read!!
Review: I could not put this book down once I started it!! What a wonderful and moving book. Even though this is fiction I could just imagine all the victims that these things have actually happened to and could not stop crying! Bravo, Naomi for writing such a wonderful and moving book!

Rating:
Summary: One of Naomi Ragen's best!
Review: I have read all of the author's books. I did not really enjoy her last book, but had loved the 4 others. This is one of her best. As with most of her other books, it was inspired by true events. I read this in a little over a day, because I could not sleep until I knew the ending. If you have read her other books and liked them, I guarantee you will love this one too!

Rating:
Summary: Suspense, action, and drama
Review: Make sure you have some time free when you get this book. It isn't easy to put the book down.

Ragen is terrific in describing the horror of Arab terror in Israel and relating it to the horror of Auschwitz. Her mother-in-law survived three years in Auschwitz as a teenager. And while she was writing this book, Ragen found out more about Arab terror than she wanted to when she was at the Park Hotel in Netanya in 2002 for Passover. Twenty-nine people died when a terrorist bomber struck, and hundreds were wounded.

Is this thriller a political work? Well, it definitely takes a stand on a couple of issues. And I'll tell you which ones. First, it is refreshingly in favor of human rights. That is a pleasant change from a number of other works of fiction that I've read. And the author is not afraid to look media complicity with terror right in the eye. Finally, Ragen manages to portray violent criminals without glorifying them.

I highly recommend this book. I think that anyone who likes human rights and dislikes terror will enjoy this book very much.

Rating:
Summary: You Will Remember This Covenant!
Review: The Covenant by Naomi Ragen, which is set in Israel also flashes back to the Holocaust where four women make a pact in this case to be known in the future as a covenant. The covenant is not only to survive Auschwitz, but to help each other in the future when any one of them is in trouble. And this time each of them is called upon to help when in Israel the husband and young child of one of their granddaughter's is kidnapped by the Palestinians. While we read about Elise Margulies, her husband and daughter, it is her elderly grandmother who recalls her days in the camps. Through her memories we come to know Ariana, Maria and Esther. After the war each of them continues in the their own way to right some of the wrongs of the world, but never have they banded together through even their grandchildren to save Elise's family.

Naomi Ragen, the author of this book, has written several previous books which were also set in Israel. Born in America she has lived in Israel for the last three decades. It is because of Ms. Ragen's first hand knowledge of the area and issues that the events in the book are well described. And the characters, especially the members of the covenant, will become truly inspiring to readers everywhere. This was a compelling and interesting read with questions concerning the Mideast for which there are few answers. I recommend this book to readers who enjoyed books like Exodus by Leon Uris and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk.


Rating:
Summary: Thrilling
Review: The Covenant is a page turner from start to finish. The story is filled with compelling characters who are tightly woven through multigenerational conflicts. Ragen's true tallent is being able to pull the reader in to her character's world. I found myself constantly questioning...what would I do? How would I behave? Then realizing these are issues facing all of us today. This is a must read!

Rating:
Summary: Amazing book...
Review: This book was amazing, gripping, chilling, heartwarming - Naomi Ragen's best. I highly recommend it to everyone - as long as you have 12 - or 24 - hours to read straight - you won't be able to stop once you start.

Rating:
Summary: Can't stop thinking about this book...
Review: This book was marvelous. I have been a fan of the author for a while, and I think this is perhaps her finest book. I highly recommend it as a remarkable insight into the lives of Israelis today... and check out the author's website: naomiragen.com so you can read her regular columns. While I don't always agree with her, I find her thought-provoking and always timely... This book is not to be missed!

Rating:
Summary: An eye-opening must-read
Review: Wow, where do I start? THE COVENANT has so much depth, with characters so rich you want to telephone them for an interview and a story so frightening that it will leave your spine tingling for days, if not weeks. With its contemporary theme, it brings the horror that was Auschwitz to the present, and contrasts that historical inhumanity with today's terrors.

American Elise Margulies lives in the holy land, thrilled to own a piece of it where she and her husband, Dr. Jon, can raise their toddler Ilana and unborn child. The one drawback to the house is its distance from the hospital where Jon gives cancer patients treatment and hope. In the past few months, it has become increasingly dangerous to drive through the rural areas so vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Refusing to live in constant fear, the Margulies family continues life as usual, in the naïve belief that something is being done to keep the roads safe. But then one day the unthinkable happens. The car in which Jon drove Ilana to her ballet recital is found, empty --- and riddled with bullets.

With no bodies at the scene, Elise allows herself to hope. But she has forgotten that death isn't always the worst that can happen. A videotape arrives, showing her husband and her daughter in the hands of Muslim extremists, making unmeetable demands in exchange for their lives. Elise despairs, until she makes a call to her Grandmother Leah.

A petite Jewish lady, Leah has survived Auschwitz. And she has friends --- three powerful, determined, loyal old women who formed the Covenant during their encampment. There is little the world can throw at them that would hurt them more than they already have been. Injuring a granddaughter or her family is one of them. The members of the Covenant join together once again, this time to free Jon and Ilana. These women do not have government's limitations or its political paralysis. Favors are called in and the rescue operation begins. But it's a sticky business, and keeping faith that Elise's family will return home becomes an almost insurmountable task. To make matters worse, Elise starts to worry that she will lose her unborn child from the stress of it all. She sorely needs Grandmother Leah's strength. Thankfully, Leah has strength enough for them both.

The author lives in Jerusalem, so despite the fact that this is --- technically --- a work of fiction, it is very real. Her knowledge of the tensions between the Palestinians and the Israelis stems from dealing with it daily. Everything about this story rings with chilling authenticity.

I came away from my experience --- and, yes, it is an experience --- reading this book with a far better understanding of who today's terrorists are and how they choose their course in life. Ms. Ragen exposes them as bloodthirsty extremists with no real care about peace or the teachings of true Islam. If peace were to settle over the land they claim to be fighting for, they would need to stir up trouble elsewhere, simply to feed their passion for violence. It is all they know.

It is very rare indeed that I consider a book a must-read, but THE COVENANT is a definite must-read.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers