Waking Lions

By: Ayelet Gundar-Goshen

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

After one night's deadly mistake, a man will go to any lengths to save his family and his reputation.

Neurosurgeon Eitan Green has the perfect life - married to a beautiful police officer, and father of two young boys. Then, speeding along a deserted moonlit road after an exhausting hospital shift, he hits someone. Seeing that the man, an African migrant, is beyond help, he flees the scene.

When the victim's widow knocks at Eitan's door the next day, holding his wallet and divulging that she knows what happened, Eitan discovers that her price for silence is not money. It is something else entirely, something that will shatter Eitan's safe existence and take him into a world of secrets and lies he could never have anticipated.

Waking Lions is a gripping, suspenseful, and morally devastating drama of guilt and survival, shame and desire from a remarkable young author on the rise.

©2017 Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

" Waking Lions is a classy, suspenseful tale of survival where the good guys and the bad guys are harder to distinguish than you might think." ( The Times UK)

"A literary thriller that is used as a vehicle to explore big moral issues. I loved everything about it." ( Daily Mail UK)

"Gripping...twists and turns like a thriller." ( Sunday Times UK)

Read the Reviews Before You Buy

I wish I would have. What a waste of time! Having read the reviews after the fact, I agree with most of the less positive ones - the premise had good potential which was spoiled by poor writing that described way too much lust by characters who knew nothing about each other, disliked each other, and had no reason to lust after each other. The characters were poorly developed and generally unlikable and the narrator was, at times, melodramatic to the point where I was groaning out loud in the car! The biggest mystery of all is how this book ended up with a four-star rating! Definitely happy to be done with this one!

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Disappointing

The writer needed a good editor. Very uneven in pacing, plot and tone. An interesting premise poorly developed. The performance is overly dramatic.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Israeli neurosurgeon gets out of comfort zone

The narrator has just enough accent to give it a foreign feel without being difficult to understand. High achiever runs over an immigrant accidentally then leaves the scene. He gets blackmailed into treating other immigrants by the mysterious wife of his victim. He is spellbound by her power over him at the expense of his family. The book has lots of self examination and could have used more plot. It's best when his secrets are almost discovered and frankly the reason one keeps listening.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Interesting

A doctor driving down a dark road strikes and kills an Eritrean illegal immigrant. The doctor drives away. Of course you know what they say - it's not the crime it's the cover-up. In this case, it may be both. It's hard to love a book with so many unlikable characters.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Good story, subpar narrator

While I enjoyed the story, I had trouble getting past the way the narrator's style. In my opinion, he over dramatized too much language so the moments that deserved emphasized drama, didn't stand out enough. The story suffered because of that.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

interesting topic executed by a bad writer

One simile followed by another and another and yet another combined with lengthy explorations into tangential topics or descriptions of history or geography that added absolutely nothing to the story transformed this book from an interesting look at Israeli society into a boring sophomoric effort by a bad writer.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Engaging ethnic mystery in Israel

Beautifully narrated story of love, deception, mystery, politics, refugees, and family. Even the end is both satisfying and unsettling.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Well Done

Unexpected - Very Well Written - Great Surprises -
A Must For Those Who Have A Heart...

Well written x 3

Beautifully written and would have been a wonderful short story. The author seemed in love with her own prose. I think the book at a minimum needed a much more severe editor.

Beautifully written and narrated

This is a moving and deep story which challenges readers wit ethical and moral dilemmas at every turn. Not only are you challenged with the question of “what would you do? “But equally with, “how would I or should I feel?” This book merits deep thought and discussion. The narrator reads the story very well and his facility with hebrew pronunciation avoids a common fatal distraction with hebrew or jewish literature narrated by people whi do not have such ability. The entire experience was a joy. It is a book and narration that I shall carry with me.