"Passport Control" Book Review

Passport Control by Gila Green is an amazing book with lots of plot twists and mystery. It tells the story of a Canadian Jew, Miriam Gil, who comes to Haifa University to study. She gets involved with many unexpected people and events. Passport Control is fiction, but to be honest, it's clear that everything Green writes about is a real possibility.

Miriam Gil knows little about Israel. Her father won’t talk about his life there or the brother he left behind when he came to Canada. Hurt and angry when he tells her to move out to make room for his new girlfriend, she enrolls in an Israeli university. She falls in love with Guy, a former combat soldier who dreams of peace. Miriam is caught off guard when her visa and passport application are rejected on the grounds that she’s suspected of being a Syrian Christian. In rapid order, the university boots her out, her one friend is killed in a brawl, and Miriam is accused of murder by Israeli police. Despite troubling revelations about her father’s past, Miriam must reconcile with him if she is to prove her innocence, reclaim her life, and hang on to her new found love.

I've been in Israel for close to half a century, and nothing surprises me. Even though I've never studied in an Israeli university, I can see how a naive Canadian student can find herself in the situations that Green places Miriam Gil. There is a lot of material about the Israel of a few decades ago, which is so different from Modern high tech Israel.

Reading Passport Control is a good way to learn about what Israel was once like. I highly recommend the book and truly enjoyed reading it. It's suitable for older teens and adults.

Some things have changed so much in recent years, but I think that nowadays there's even more contact between Jews and Arabs, especially in Israeli universities. Foreigners would most probably be shocked at how much integration there really is.

Gila Green is an Israel-based Canadian author from Ottawa. Her father is a Yemenite-Israeli immigrant to Canada and her mother is a third generation Canadian. She has lived in Winnipeg, Vancouver, Johannesburg, Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv. She works as a freelance writer, editor and online creative writing instructor, as well as an EFL college lecturer. Gila is the author of Passport Control, White Zion (a novel in stories forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press 2019), No Entry (forthcoming from Stormbird Press, 2019) and King of the Class. Her stories have been nominated for seven international awards and have been published in two dozen magazines and anthologies including: The Fiddlehead, Terrain.org, Jewish Fiction, Fiction Magazine, Many Mountains Moving, The Dalhousie Review and The Saranac Review. Gila writes often about racism, alienation, dislocation, war, family relationships, pre-State Israel, modern Israel, and more recently about a murderous poaching ring in South Africa's Kruger Park. Gila is the proud mother of five children.

You can order a print or kindle version from Amazon:

• Paperback: 357 pages
• Publisher: S & H Publishing, Incorporated (August 19, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 163320054X
• ISBN-13: 978-1633200548

"Wild Lavender," Great Summer Read. Any Takers?

Last night, as much to common on a Saturday night, I just couldn't fall asleep. So instead of tossing and turning and getting very aggravated, I finished reading "Wild Lavender" by Belinda Alexandra.

I can't blame the book for missing half a night's sleep, but I'm glad I finished reading it finally. It's a long book. There are lots of pages and small print.

‘Nothing is wasted, Simone. The love we give never dies.’
For Simone Fleurier, working in her aunt’s boarding house in Marseilles is both tiring and thankless, but things take unexpected turn when one of the tenants, a showgirl at Le Chat Espiègle, assigns Simone the job of walking her pet chihuahua.
Gradually Simone becomes known at the music hall, and her talent for singing is discovered. When an opportunity arises to go to Paris it seems a dream is realised.
In Paris Simone is drawn to André Blanchard, son of a powerful French family, and Simone becomes the brightest of the city’s lights. But slowly the world around her grows darker. When Nazi troops occupy her beloved city, she must make a decision that will lead to great danger – yet ultimately prove that love, just like wild lavender, can grow in the least likely of places …

The beginning of the book seemed familiar. I must have started it once and not finished reading it. The copy I read is old and marked ns10, obviously from a used book shop.

Since I don't have any need to save it, nor plan on reading it again, it needs a new home. So, if you're interested let me know, and we'll figure out logistics.