Sacrifice of Isaac [Paperback]

Neil Gordon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996

For twenty-six-year-old Luke Benami, life has always been a study in absolutes: black and white, good and evil, truth and lies. A father hailed as a national hero, a pioneer in the birth of Israel. A brother scorned as an army deserter, a criminal on the run. But his father's sudden death will change everything Luke has ever known or believed...about his father, his history, his homeland.

Searching for his estranged brother, Luke finds only Danni's lover in Paris and his business partner in Florence, both claiming to know nothing of his whereabouts. Danni has undertaken his own quest, into the heart of a dark secret that has long haunted the family. It will become Luke's quest too, taking them both into a dangerous world of moral ambiguity, desperate choices, and profound betrayal.

Spellbinding and provocative, Sacrifice of Isaac is the stunning debut of a remarkable talent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gordon's first novel is a literary thriller charting the legacy of the Holocaust for an Israeli family.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-This is neither a thriller nor a suspense novel. But it's both thrilling and suspenseful. The tension results from an intricate mystery that is gradually and satisfyingly unraveled. Luke is the 26-year-old Israeli son of Holocaust survivors. The story opens with the death of his estranged father, a famous general, statesman, and author. That death sends Luke to Paris in search of his long-lost older brother, who deserted the Israeli army 15 years earlier. The search does not end until the last page of the book; along the way, the woman both brothers love is murdered, and Luke kills a man he thinks is his brother. But even more important than those deaths is the brothers' hunt for the horrible moral choice made by their father (the "sacrifice of Isaac") nearly 50 years ago, because that search leads Luke to a deeper understanding of his father, his brother, and the complex relationship among the three. The novel's power is marred only slightly by several flaws: at times, Luke is too bumbling to believe; and the single villain stays offstage so long that the eventual revelation of his villainy makes him little more than a deus ex machina. Those faults won't keep any readers from being intellectually stimulated and emotionally moved, and serious teenagers will be especially engaged by Gordon's deep insight into father-son, brother-brother relationships.
Chip Barnett, Rockbridge Regional Library, Lexington, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553576356
• ISBN-13: 978-0553576351
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,385,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Tale!, December 6, 2003

By 

Curtis Grindahl (San Anselmo, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacrifice of Isaac (Paperback)

I'm not alone as an American observer of what has been happening in Israel the last three years in feeling uncomfortable with the treatment of Palestinians by Israelis. I hadn't fully appreciated when I opened this book, how directly the author would address this issue as he tells the story of two disaffected sons and their relationship with a father who played a role in the founding of Israel. The discomfort of the sons with how the dream of Israel had turned into something less than noble, matches my own. Since so much of the novel explores the interior world of those who contribute to the unfolding of the story, one ultimately of betrayal, this book demands a certain care on the part of the reader both for the characters and for the larger issues being discussed. Personally, I was mesmerized by the story and the conflicted morality represented. Mr. Gordon weaves together the voices of the characters with grace, even as he richly evokes the circumstances in which they find themselves. The light, the rain, the shadows, the smells came alive for me as I dropped into the world he creates. This is fine writing that draws one into the mystery of what happened and why.

As a footnote, I'll observe that it seems unhelpful to have reviews of different media lumped together. Comparing the experience of listening to an audio version of a book with the experience of turning the pages is, in my estimation impossible. That one review dislikes the inflection of a voice rendering dialogue means absolutely nothing in assessing the quality of this book.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just another thriller, but so much more., February 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Sacrifice of Isaac (Paperback)

Running thru the Vegas airport to catch the last plane home. Quick stop at the bookstore looking for something to keep me interested during the wee hours when everyone else's reading light goes out and I just cannot sleep. It looks like a decent Middle East thriller, and someone on cover says reminds them of LeCarre. First few pages totally taken in --- fathers and sons and the the thick confused politics of Israel, which is usually enough to keep me reading...but then plunging on into Paris and a mystically binding love story...and further in, to the mystery of the Holocaust. What had been just a quick thriller becomes a close lyrical study of the moral and personal complexities of growing up in Israel, to serve in an army that feels as though it is doing what the army your fathers fought against did in WWII. Moral passion, thick ambiguities, little resolved but all the questions of history and personal politics properly asked and unanswered.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful thriller, January 20, 2005

By 

William E. Raney (Kansas City, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacrifice of Isaac (Paperback)

Gordon has mixed the history of art, Europe and Zionism to craft an excellent mystery thriller. While the pace is deliberate, the time Gordon spends explaining details of paintings, Nazi bureaucracy, the founding of Israel, and the cities of Paris and Florence is well spent, as the conclusion requires these details on physical and philosophical levels.

Details make for complicated decisions. Right or wrong is simple. Life is complicated.

On a side note, Gordon often quotes dialogue in French, Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew, but you do not need these languages to read the book as the dialogue's content becomes quickly appararent usually on the same page.