A review by cynthiam
Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander

3.0

This is an historical fiction novel that focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is a Prisoner Z, an Israeli, who is imprisoned in a “black prison” for having become sympathetic to the Palestinians and wanting the killing to stop. There is the General (Ariel Sharon) who ordered him held but who is now in a coma. There is the woman Z fell in love with, but who lured him back to Israel to be arrested. And there is the Mapmaker, a Palestinian, who that same woman falls in love with despite the two of them rarely being able to be together. At the end of the book the woman and the Mapmaker meet in a highly-secret military tunnel between Gaza and Israel -- thus the title of the book. Most of the characters in the book want the violence to stop, but they are trapped in their roles. Definitely thought provoking.

Note: In my star rating system 3 stars = good.