A review by lazygal
Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel by Matti Friedman

3.0

The author is writing an adult nonfiction book but it reads more like YA narrative nonfiction. That's not a bad thing, but I had to keep reminding myself that this was an adult book. What did annoy me more was the author's inserting himself into the story far too frequently, and some of the explanations of names could have been done in an author's note. This is also a very slim volume that attempts to both highlight the people involved in the Arab Section of the Palmach and what was going on politically (and religiously) in what we now call Israel shortly before and after the country was founded. There is some discussion of the differences between the European Jews and those from the Middle East, as well as something about how the various Arab countries felt about what was happening due to the British pulling out but a fuller explanation might have helped those who don't really know about that era.

ARC provided by publisher.