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Perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Robert Harris and Scott Mariani
Drawing on rich archival research, this book explores how the elite network of the Pilgrims Society - whose members included J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie - attempted to influence the Anglo-American relationship in the days before it became 'special'.
From the best-selling author of The Hangman's Daughter, a historical thriller set in contemporary Bavaria, about Ludwig II's mysterious death and the long-lost diary that could unlock its secrets.
In a seedy hotel near Ground Zero, a woman lies face down in a pool of acid, features melted of her face, teeth missing, fingerprints gone. The room has been sprayed down with DNA-eradicating antiseptic spray. Pilgrim, the code name for a legendary, world-class segret agent, quickly realizes that all of the murderer's techniques were pulled directly from his own book, a cult classic of forensic science written under a pen name.
"Controversies in politics and religion, customs of family life and society, obligations of labor and chances to play, questions of free will, democracy, the separation of church and state, religious toleration, treatment of Indians---these form the matter of this book." -- Publisher's description.
One of the most astounding aftershocks of the collapse of the Soviet Union was the massive immigration of Russian Jews to Israel. Today, Russian speakers constitute one-sixth of Israel's total population. No other country in the world has absorbed such a prodigious number of immigrants in such a short period. The implications of this phenomenon are immense both locally (given the geopolitical situation in the Middle East) and globally (as multicultural and multiethnic states become the rule rather than the exception). For a growing number of immigrants worldwide, the experience of living across different cultures, speaking different languages, and accommodating different--and often incompatible--identities is a daily reality. This reality is a challenge to the scholar striving to understand the origin and nature of cultural identity. Languages can be learned, economic constraints overcome, social mores assimilated. But identity persists through generations, setting immigrants and their children apart from their adoptive country. The story of the former Russians in Israel is an illuminating example of this global trend. The Russian Jews who came to Israel were initially welcomed as prodigal sons coming home. Their connection to their "historical motherland" was seemingly cemented not only by their Jewish ethnicity, but also by a potent Russian influence upon Zionism. The first Zionist settlers in Palestine were mostly from Russia and Poland, and Russian literature, music, and sensibility had had a profound effect upon the emerging Hebrew culture. Thus, it seemed that while facing the usual economic challenges of immigrations, the "Russians," as they came to be known, would have little problem acclimatizing in Israel. The reality has been quite different, marked by mutual incomprehension and cultural mistranslation. While achieving a prominent place in Israeli economy, the Russians in Israel have faced discrimination and stereotyping. And their own response to Israeli culture and society has largely been one of rejection and disdain. If Israel has failed to integrate the newcomers, the newcomers have shown little interest in being integrated. Thus, the story of the post-Soviet Jews in Israel illustrates a general phenomenon of cultural divergence, in which history carves different identities out of common stock. Besides marking a turning point in the development of Israel, it belongs to the larger picture of the contemporary world, profoundly marked by the collapse of the catastrophic utopias of Nazism and Communism. And yet this story has not adequately been dealt with by the academy. There have been relatively few studies of the Russian immigration to Israel and none that situates the phenomenon in a cultural, rather than purely sociological, context. Elana Gomel's book, The Pilgrim Soul: Being Russian in Israel, is an original and exciting investigation of the Russian community in Israel. It analyzes the narratives through which Russian Jewry defines itself and connects them to the legacy of Soviet history. It engages with such key elements of the Russian-Israeli identity as the aversion from organized religion, the challenge of bilingualism, the cult of romantic passion, and even the singular fondness for science fiction. It provides factual information on the social, economic, and political situation of the Russians in Israel but relates the data to an overall interpretation of the community's cultural history. At the same time, the book goes beyond the specificity of its subject by focusing on the theoretical issues of identity formation, historical trauma, and utopian disillusionment. The Pilgrim Soul is an important book for all collections in cultural studies, ethnic and immigrant studies, Israeli studies, and Soviet studies. It will appeal to a variety of readers interested in the issues of immigration, multiculturalism, and identity formation.
This is an investigative novel that starts by asking the simple but pertinent question: since there are no sources whatsoever testifying that the saint, or his remains were in Spain, then who invented all this, and why? I became interested in this issue after having read a tiny sentence in the official history book of St. James, which casually states that the Cathedral of Compostela lost the relics of St. James for nearly three hundred years, from 1588 to 1879. Lose the most important relics in Christendom? I surmised that they didn’t lose them, because they never had them in the first place. That also would despatch the implausible tale of how the saint’s remains had travelled by stone vessel, steered only by the wind, in eight days, from Jerusalem to Galicia in Spain, in 44 A.D. Still, St. James’ legends gave rise to the largest pilgrimage in European history. A riddle indeed. Challenged by a publisher, I decided to investigate this story not as most historians have, namely to accept the Church’s version, but instead, to follow a journalistic approach; to search for those who benefitted - who had ulterior motives. Banking on my business experience, and art historical knowledge, I hoped to solve this riddle whilst walking part of the route, the so-called ‘camino’, between Burgos and Santiago de Compostela. In so doing I also aimed to find out why people should want to do this arduous journey today, as ca. 300,000 annually do. It resulted in this travel account and investigative analysis, and a very defensible solution to the riddle of St. James. The Church employed fear to persuade Christians to seek penance and forgiveness at an empty shrine in Spain. This exploit I have called a conspiracy. A serious accusation, but in my view, also a defensible claim. Once underway something strange happened. An English former banker was shot in front of my eyes. Whilst this incident is fictional, it strangely fits in my fact-based investigation of what happened between the 9th to 16th centuries when literally millions upon millions of pilgrims took a year off to visit Compostela. The pilgrimage led to a colossal industry, and the strange shooting incident pointed me to some of its present-day benefactors.