Lonely Tree

Book excerpt: Tonia Shulman does not share her father's dream - forging a Jewish State out of the chaos of British Mandate Palestine. She hates the hardships of life in an isolated kibbutz south of Jerusalem -- clearing rocky hillsides, washing in rationed cups of trucked-in water, and being confined behind barbed wire. Her own dreams have nothing to do with national self-realization; she longs for steaming bubble baths and down comforters, but most of all for a place on earth where she can feel safe. She falls in love with Amos but refuses to acknowledge these feelings. She knows he will never leave his homeland, and Tonia plans to emigrate to America. But can she really begin a new life there? The beginning of The Lonely Tree is interwoven with the true story of Kfar Etzion, a kibbutz that was overrun by the Arab Legion during pre-War of Independence hostilities. Yael Politis is a native of Michigan and has lived in Israel since 1973. In her spare time from writing fiction, she is employed as a Proposal Writer, Editor, and Hebrew-English Translator.