Description:

"No one knows more about Israel's existential dilemma than Alan Dershowitz-or writes about it better. From its explosive beginning to its startling climax, THE TRIALS OF ZION excites and intrigues, even as it depicts the unique dangers of a lethal part of the world. This is a terrific novel."
-Richard North Patterson

"For a legalist, mired for years in towers of ivory not even hewn from the teeth of endangered elephants but constructed, indeed, and solely, of the casuistic and notional, Mr. Dershowitz writes a real good rip-snorter."
-David Mamet

"A thought-provoking thriller set in two of the world's most gripping arenas of conflict, the Middle East and the courtroom."
-Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought,and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction

"As in all his essays, in his novel also, Alan Dershowitz demonstrates his great love for Israel as well as his inspired passion for Jewish memory, justice, and storytelling."
-Elie Wiesel

A shocking act of terror brings the Middle East to the point of explosion. As the resulting political conflict threatens to erupt, a young Jewish-American lawyer joins the defense team of an arrested but possibly innocent Palestinian. Soon the lawyer's father, a famed criminal attorney, must win the Palestinian's case or risk losing his daughter forever. To do so, he must take into account the tormented history of the Holy Land from every possible angle. THE TRIALS OF ZION combines the tension of the greatest courtroom dramas with the action of a fast-moving thriller, all set against the colorful backdrop of one of the most complex cultural settings in the world. Filled with memorable characters, this novel offers readers not only compelling suspense, but a panoramic view of the history of a beloved and bitterly contested land, and a sharply controversial perspective on the sources of--and the possible solutions to--the world's longest and most crucial international crisis.

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Dershowitz's earnest third novel (after 2000's Just Revenge) featuring celebrity lawyer Abe Ringel, whose quirky, sometimes quixotic career resembles the author's own, Abe's 26-year-old daughter, Emma, goes to Israel despite Abe's misgivings. Emma, a recent Yale law school graduate, plans to help defend a terrorist bomber accused of setting off an explosion that has killed several of the world's leaders. Deadly complications force Abe to step in and get involved in trials whose outcomes could threaten the lives of those who are nearest to him. Besides showcasing the differences between the Israeli and American systems, these trials raise ethical questions that are, as always in this series, the real heart of the matter. Those looking for a read that offers interesting legal issues and clever courtroom action and don't mind clunky dialogue and perfunctory thriller plotting might enjoy the result.
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From Booklist

Emma Ringel, the daughter of prominent defense attorney Abe Ringel, has just finished Yale Law School and moved back to her father’s home in Cambridge. She is ready to begin a prestigious clerkship with a judge when she gets an e-mail from classmate Habash Ein, who now works for Palestinian Human Rights Watch in the Middle East. He wants her to assist in the defense of a young Arab arrested after a horrible terrorist attack. Habash feels that the man is innocent. As Emma, a young Jewish woman, begins to work on the case, she spends time with her Israeli relatives and learns more about the history of her family and the much-contested land in the Middle East. She also has to consider her feelings for Habash. Her father soon finds himself involved in the case, too. Dershowitz has constructed a thriller based on current events that combines exciting action with courtroom drama and a lesson in the history and politics of the Middle East. A thought-provoking page-turner. --Barbara Bibel