Strange fire /

Bukiet's black and biting satirical fiction (After [1996] and Signs and Wonders [1999]) has been well received, but this could be his breakthrough book--a smart, crisp, political page-turner. Blind, gay Russian emigreNathan Kazakov, speechwriter for the hawkish, heartless Israeli prime minister Simon ben Levi, loses some of his remaining senses when a bullet, presumably meant for his boss, takes off his left ear. Motivated to learn the true target of the attempted assassination, Kazakov--with his marvelously honed sense of smell and the help of his doctor--is soon mired in a quest to uncover operation Strange Fire and its connection to the prime minister's dovish archaeologist son Gabriel. (The answer is not to be found, however, in the file stolen from the prime minister and labeled SF, which turns out to stand for--what else?--science fiction.) Bukiet hasn't lost his bite, with his succinct observations about the Middle East and what people will do for power, and there is tough stuff here (torture and homosexual rape) along with the humor. The protagonist is one of the most unlikely in modern fiction--but this book is a stunner. --Michele Leber

Prescient, more or less it doesn't take a prophet to forecast cyclical violence in the Middle East Bukiet's witty, engrossing novel anticipates the current resurgence of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, chronicling the derailment of the peace process after a conservative victory in the Knesset. Like an Israeli All the Kings Men recast as a thriller, the tale is told by a political aide Nathan Kazakov, a blind ex-POW, Russian immigrant, former poet, Lebanon invasion veteran, semicloseted homosexual and now speechwriter to Simon ben Levi, the charismatic right-wing prime minister (more in the mold of Benjamin Netanyahu than Ariel Sharon). Making an obvious reference to Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, the novel opens with a gun shot: a Jewish settler fires the pistol, and it is Nathan who gets a bullet in the ear. This brush with death heightens Nathan's disenchantment with Simon's politics, impelling his investigation into the assassin's real target and prompting him to search for Simon's estranged son, the enigmatic archeologist Gabriel. Bukiet (Signs and Wonders) keeps a steady level of suspense simply by capitalizing on Nathan's blindness. After encounters with colorful characters like Gita Mamoun, a philanthropic female Palestinian arms mogul and a fanatical rabbi called Moshe X, Nathan discovers a labyrinthine conspiracy code-named Strange Fire, which somehow involves Gabriel. In a region as convoluted as the Middle East, conspiracies are as central as ordinary politics, and it's almost a shame when all is finally revealed after the fascinating deployment of so many Red Sea herrings. (May) Forecast: Call this a hopped-up literary novel or an offbeat thriller either way, it defies genre labels. Mainstream thriller readers probably won't bite, but fans of clever, eccentric amateur detectives and those who follow Israeli news closely (the book will be promoted in Jewish publications) will appreciate the hero's wiles. An author tour to New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., should help those readers find the book. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Bukiet tries his hand at a thriller, while continuing to explore the Jewish world as he has previously (Signs and Wonders, 1999, etc.). Nathan Kazakov, the narrator-hero, seems already at a severe disadvantage compared to the other characters here: as a result of his two-year captivity while a POW held by the Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, he is blind and horribly disfigured. But the Russian-born ex-poet still has a quick mind, a fertile, almost febrile, brain and a scathing wit, not to mention a delightfully loyal German shepherd seeing-eye dog named Goldie. And at the outset of the story, he’s the prized speechwriter of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Simon Ben Levi, deeply infatuated with Simon’s famous archaeologist (and leftist) son Gabriel. When a Jewish religious fanatic takes a shot at Nathan and Gabriel at a public gathering, Nathan is left with one less ear and a fervent desire to find out what happened. His investigations lead him into the proverbial hall of mirrors of Israeli-Palestinian politics, from a mud-processing plant run by Jewish settlers on the banks of the Dead Sea to the tunnel underneath the Dome of the Rock in the holiest of places in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Bukiet’s excursion into the ostensibly more commercial precincts of the political thriller has not left him bereft of his trademark sarcasm and linguistic fireworks; indeed, with Nathan as narrator, there is probably more wordplay per square inch here than in a dozen genre exercises. Bukiet is not as deft a plotter as the genre requires, and there are still some fine points of plot that one is left pondering by the final—literally explosive—climax, but it’s good nasty fun. Kazakov is a likable guide for this package tour of the hell of Middle East politics, though it could profitably be shortened by 40 or 50 pages. Author tour