My Promised Land

The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel

By: Ari Shavit

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review and The Economist

Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

An authoritative and deeply personal narrative history of the State of Israel, by one of the most influential journalists writing about the Middle East today.

Not since Thomas L. Friedman's groundbreaking From Beirut to Jerusalem has a book captured the essence and the beating heart of the Middle East as keenly and dynamically as My Promised Land. Facing unprecedented internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of existential crisis. Ari Shavit draws on interviews, historical documents, private diaries, and letters, as well as his own family's story, illuminating the pivotal moments of the Zionist century to tell a riveting narrative that is larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and national, both deeply human and of profound historical dimension.

We meet Shavit’s great-grandfather, a British Zionist who, in 1897, visited the Holy Land on a Thomas Cook tour and understood that it was the way of the future for his people; the idealist young farmer who bought land from his Arab neighbor in the 1920s to grow the Jaffa oranges that would create Palestine’s booming economy; the visionary youth group leader who, in the 1940s, transformed Masada from the neglected ruins of an extremist sect into a powerful symbol for Zionism; the Palestinian who as a young man in 1948 was driven with his family from his home during the expulsion from Lydda; the immigrant orphans of Europe’s Holocaust, who took on menial work and focused on raising their children to become the leaders of the new state; the pragmatic engineer who was instrumental in developing Israel’s nuclear program in the 1960s, in the only interview he ever gave; the zealous religious Zionists who started the settler movement in the 1970s; the dot-com entrepreneurs and young men and women behind Tel-Aviv’s booming club scene; and today’s architects of Israel’s foreign policy with Iran, whose nuclear threat looms ominously over the tiny country.

As it examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, My Promised Land asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can Israel survive? Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is currently facing, My Promised Land uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. The result is a landmark portrait of a small, vibrant country living on the edge, whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today’s global political landscape.

Praise for My Promised Land

“This book will sweep you up in its narrative force and not let go of you until it is done. [Shavit’s] accomplishment is so unlikely, so total...that it makes you believe anything is possible, even, God help us, peace in the Middle East.” (Simon Schama, Financial Times)

“[A] must-read book.” (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times)

“Important and powerful...the least tendentious book about Israel I have ever read.” (Leon Wieseltier, The New York Times Book Review)

“Spellbinding...Shavit’s prophetic voice carries lessons that all sides need to hear.” (The Economist)

“One of the most nuanced and challenging books written on Israel in years.” (The Wall Street Journal)

©2013 Random House Audio (P)2013 Ari Shavit

Critic reviews

“Shavit's provocative book avoids the clichés typical of some works about the Middle East, and the audio version benefits from Paul Boehmer's superb presentation.” (AudioFile Magazine)

“The most extraordinary book that I’ve read on [Israel] since Amos Elon’s book called The Israelis, and that was published in the late sixties.” (David Remnick)

“Shavit is a master storyteller. [His] retelling of history jars us out of our familiar retrospections, reminds us (and we do need reminders) that there are historical reasons why Israel is a country on the edge.... Required reading for both the left and the right.” (The Jewish Week)

Too important to be ruined by its narration!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I've withheld comment until I had a chance to listen to some samples of Paul Boehmer's narration of other works. In other contexts, he has a terrific voice and style. But this was a mistake - the faux-Israeli accent makes it almost unbearable to listen to, and undermines the content of this important book. As I was listening in my car, I almost had to pull over because I was laughing so hard at the pronunciation of "1936" - the "theerrty" so far back in the throat I thought he would choke. Over and over again. This during the "Arab Uprisings" - not the intended effect, I'm sure.

The irony is that the author himself speaks far better English than the narrator - a richly-intoned, articulate, British-inflected voice.

What did you like best about this story?

If all Israelis - and Palestinians - had a sensibility akin to Shavit, the two nations would surely find a way to coexist peacefully. He holds the remarkable achievement of the Jews in Palestine in perfect tension with its tragic impact on the Palestinian people. Essential reading on the history of this land.

How could the performance have been better?

See above. Really unfortunate. In that this is clearly a reaction many have had, the publisher should strongly consider re-doing the recording.

Do you think My Promised Land needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, just a new recording - same narrator, sans accent. Please consider it - this book is too important to be ruined by its narration.

Personal and illuminating

Ari Shavit provides, with great clarity, a very personal assessment of the history, people and present state of Israel—drawn from primary research, and many interviews of the original players of the events that impacted and impacting Israel politically, socially, militarily, economically. In addition to being a worthwhile read, the Audible performance by Paul Boehmer is superior.

ISRAEL

“My Promised Land” is a masterpiece of modern history, a story of Israel told by an Israeli.

Ari Shavit reveals intertwined truths about Israel and its place in the world. He explores a one-state and two-state solution for peace in the Middle East. Shavit acknowledges Israeli’ ambivalence about Jewish settlement, occupation, and Palestinian ghettoization; Shavit explains how Jewish experience in WWII pervades Israeli’ consciousness. It binds the country together and tears it apart. The binding together comes from the holocaust’s common ancestral experience. The tearing apart comes from Jewish empathy for uprooting and isolating indigenous Palestinians.

A must read to understand Israel and its politics.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

It is a great class in history and politics of a nation very hard to explain.
Still some things are left unexplained but this clears a lot of misunderstandings and assumptions.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Not a NOVEL

What does Paul Boehmer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A good read

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

NOT A NOVEL

Israel explained

This book manages to articulate many of the ideas I have towards Israel, its founding, Zionism, Israeli history and society. A superb analysis of the past, present and future of the Jewish people. The book provides a very useful tool kit to understand the region and the eternal conflict of the land. Entertaining, thoughtful, complete.

This is the first audio book I've ever listened to and I feel I found a new of learning

Great experience

Who approved this narration?

Interesting book but the worse narration ever. The fake foeign accent was made worse by constant mispronounciation, really annoying.

Important perspective

Quite a great historical presentation of Israel's recent history shedding light on the present day tensions in the area. Seems to be a balanced view. Well read by Mr. Boehmer.

Excellent, & intellectually honest

Shavit clearly analyzes the daunting problems Israel continues to face and soberly looks to the future.

It wad a revelation

Thanks author! I did open the history and presents of my country again, in unexpected light. And even. And even I could take a look to the future….

Read the Book Instead

The book itself is excellent. But I had to abandon the Audible version due to the distracting accent the narrator used and switch to a hard copy.